Another week, another viral sports controversy.
If you haven’t heard of the “Phillies Karen,” you’re either living under a rock or simply not chronically online.
The saga started when Philadelphia Phillies fan Drew Feltwell attended a game last week with his wife and two children. After fielder Harrison Bader launched a home run into the stands, several fans, including Feltwell, scrambled for the ball.
After successfully securing the home run ball for his young son, Feltwell suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an outburst from a woman in a Phillies jersey, demanding the ball.
The brief exchange, captured on video, quickly went viral. Eventually, Feltwell relented, taking the ball from his son’s mitt and passing it to the woman, whom the internet promptly dubbed “Phillies Karen.”
Online sleuths have searched in vain for the identity of the women, but Feltwell has asked the internet to move on and leave her alone.
“Please don’t do anything to that lady,’’ Feltwell told USA Today this week. “Leave it alone. You know, somebody knows her and can talk to her, that’s different. But God, I don’t want people breaking in their house and stuff like that. The internet already messed her up pretty good.’’
The “Phillies Karen” moment is just the latest reminder of how the viral cycle works: someone makes a public misstep, it spreads instantly, and internet vigilantes pounce. Abuse floods in, identities are hunted down, and sometimes even innocent bystanders are targeted.
Only a week earlier, another fan was branded the “hat snatcher” after cameras caught a CEO grabbing a hat meant for a young boy from Polish tennis player Kamil Majchrzak. He later apologized on his company’s website and Facebook page, but not before internet sleuths mistakenly targeted a different businessman with the same name, inundating him with hate-filled messages and tanking his paving company’s Google reviews.
That’s the risk of online vigilantism. And even when the internet gets the right person, the response can be wildly disproportionate. “I could say something like she got what she deserved,” Feltwell said. “But I don’t know if she deserved that much.”
For those caught in the storm, the best option is to wait it out. The internet always moves on. After all, no one’s talking about the Astronomer CEO anymore… right?
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