College football fans were clearly excited to be back in the stadium during the Clemson vs. UGA game. But that’s no excuse for them to harass TV reporters who are just trying to do their jobs.
The fans’ excitement over the Dawgs battling the Tigers turned into a relentless invasion of privacy for one female reporter. According to Outkick, Lyndsey Gough works for WTOC 11 out of Savannah, Georgia. She made the trek to North Carolina for the monumental Clemson vs. Georiga game. And while shooting a live shot in the busy concourse, more than one fan got too close for comfort or interrupted her broadcast to make an appearance on camera.
Now, it’s not unusual for fans to try and get their 15 minutes of fame on TV. What is unusual is when they touch the reporter trying to do their job or invade their personal space just to put their face in front of the camera.
Gough posted a startling video on her Twitter page to show everyone exactly what she dealt with at the Clemson vs. Georgia game. In the video, we see one fan come up behind her and put his hand on her back while saying, “Hello,” to the camera. Gough quickly jumps away and says, “Please don’t touch me.”
In another moment, a man comes up behind her again and hovers just over her shoulder. He doesn’t say anything, but he stays within Gough’s personal bubble without moving. “Excuse you,” she tells him.
When a crowd of people walks past, one man bumps into her shoulder while he passes, his arm scraping a good portion of her back. And potentially her backside. The shock on Gough’s face speaks volumes.
“After the first guy touched me I started rolling… this isn’t even all of it. So uncomfortable. Can we please respect people’s space,” Gough wrote on Twitter.
Lyndsey Gough Fires Back at Twitter Trolls After Her Experience at Clemson vs. UGA Game
As if Lyndsey Gough didn’t go through enough at the Clemson vs. Georgia game, trolls on Twitter had to capitalize on her misfortune.
After she posted the video, many people flooded her comments sections and replies with criticisms of her, not the fans. Several people said she should look into another profession, especially if “field reporting may be too challenging for her.”
“I did 5 live hits yesterday. I can handle it fine,” Gough shot back at one Twitter user.
Other people tried to justify the fans’ behaviors by saying they were probably drinking. “I agree, but when you are in the middle of a thousand fans that have been drinking for a few hours that’s the behavior of fans. Go cover Golf where there is not so many fans coming out a giant arena!” one person said.
“There’s always a but,” Gough replied.
An ESPN radio worker defended Gough from the trolls, summing up the situation perfectly. “These people in the comments saying ‘hey it comes with the job’ are mad disrespectful,” Jo Johnson said. “The job is covering the game, being groped by weirdos in the middle of a broadcast is not in that description.”
