Winston-Salem Journal sports reporter Dan Collins, who covers the Wake Forest beat, wrote the sentence that is the headline for this post. He wrote it as part of a piece on what he thinks we need to see from Wake fans who are at odds over the direction the school's basketball program is heading. He also wrote:

What does rankle me, however, is to see the utter lack of respect some have for opinions other than their own. And it rankles me to see what lengths some go to discredit and even vilify those who decline to walk lockstep in any direction they feel the argument should — no, must — go. 

It's very important here that I repeat, I'm talking about voices from both sides of the divide…

The worst moments, though, have come with the ridicule and vilest of rhetoric that has been tossed back and forth. Such hate and vitriol should be denounced by any fair-minded individual.

The unfortunate incident at the end of the Wake-Maryland game left a bitter taste I've yet to get out of my mouth. I've heard some say that what the person did was unacceptable, but they understand his frustration.

No, that's wrong. Unacceptable is unacceptable. To qualify it with the word but is to mitigate how wrong it was.

Collins is being very politic in his choice of words. There's a phrase that could be used to describe the fans' behavior and would be both succinct and accurate if not politic: Many Wake fans have been showing their butts and they need to just stop.