ARLINGTON, Texas — Compared to the alternative, Jayden Fielding welcomes the Bronx cheers.
“I’d take boos over what I get. Any day of the week,” the Ohio State kicker said. “I’d rather be booed as soon as I step on the field than what I get right now.”
What Fielding gets now is unsuitable for print. Unsuitable, really, for anything. I read one of the text messages the senior received after he missed a 27-yard field goal wide left with 2:48 left in Indiana’s 13-10 win against OSU in the Big Ten championship game. I won’t dignify the threatening vitriol by sharing exact details, but there were enough F-bombs, racial epithets and other disgusting descriptors to make Dave Chappelle blush.
“Some of the messages (to Jayden) I’ve read are the worst things I’ve ever read in my life,” said Ohio State punter Joe McGuire, who has received angry messages of his own after clunky punts, though not on the same level as Fielding. “Absolutely diabolical.”
“If I have a bad punt, everyone is going to say we wanted you to do better. So did I,” McGuire added. “I don’t need to be informed by someone that I didn’t punt like I wanted to.”
Hateful words are one thing, but after his cell number got leaked following the loss to Indiana, more than a few of Fielding’s text messages contained sticks-and-stones threats to break some bones.
“My home address also got leaked. They got a bomb threat on my house,” Fielding said, sharing that the cell numbers of his parents, sister and grandfather also were leaked, most likely by gamblers. “After games like that, my phone doesn’t even work because I’m receiving so many text messages.”
Few of those messages included the words: “Have a nice day.” Fielding is fine with that. The thick-skinned Texan is not above being criticized.
“Going on social media and saying, ‘This guy needs to be better.’ That’s fine,” he said. “Anything about commenting on the play itself or the player’s ability is fine, in my opinion. You could say whatever you want about the play on the field, but the moment it turns to off-the-field stuff, that’s when it becomes personal and is a personal attack. Death threats and stuff like that are completely off the table.”
What is allowed on the table? Questioning a college athlete’s performance is well within the lines of fair play. The sticky part is how the critiquing manifests. In 2008, I took a portion of Buckeye Nation to task for vehemently booing Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman after he threw an incompletion against Troy in the fourth game of the 2008 season. The Buckeyes, and Boeckman, were coming off a subpar game against USC, but as the starting quarterback the season before, when the Buckeyes advanced to the BCS championship game, he deserved better than having to hear boos bounce around the Horseshoe like a vicious version of O-H-I-O.
Fast forward to 2025, when booing individual players seems almost quaint compared to what transpires on the Internet, such is the seedy impact of social media on fan ferocity.
Or, as Fielding tells it, gambling ferocity.
“The people who leaked my phone number were sports bettors,” Fielding said of what a police investigation turned up. “I’d say 95% of the people who were texting me and calling my parents were sports bettors.”
Of course, that still leaves a 5% lunatic fringe to give the majority of sane fans a bad name.
“I don’t know what you’re doing with your life if you’re messaging someone saying ‘You suck,’ ” McGuire said. “I understand if it’s a performance-related post to their friends … but you don’t need to message a player with ‘You did bad.’
“I don’t think any form of personal message is warranted. If I’ve got my money in a financial firm and they don’t perform as well as you want, I’m not going to send their whole firm death threats. I’m not going to publicly out them and say how bad they are. This is similar to that.”
Let’s be clear. Ohio State players are not “kids.” They are not innocent pee-wees trying to catch passes with oversized helmets slipping over their eyes. If you are old enough to go to war you are old enough to handle some heat. But accepting blame and absorbing abuse are not two sides of the same coin.
“There is a lot that comes with playing here,” coach Ryan Day said. “There are pluses and minuses. We know that, but these guys are doing everything possible they can to win. We all know there are things that cross the line and are inappropriate. It’s unfortunate. You say that’s part of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.”
Special teams quality control coach Rob Keys agreed with Day that dealing with distractions, including social media, is one of the bigger challenges of playing for a high-profile program like OSU.
“It’s not easy for a young man of that age to have to endure some of the outside noise,” Keys said. “It’s a test of who they are as a person.”
And Fielding is one tough person, having endured not only the online abuse after the IU game but also having handled twice as much mistreatment after the 2024 Michigan game, when he missed two field goal attempts in a 13-10 loss.
After the upset loss to the Wolverines, Fielding needed security protection to attend class.
“I didn’t need it (after Indiana) because I didn’t have any in-person classes, but the last time (after Michigan) when going to class I had a police officer with me,” he said. “It’s pretty sad, honestly. It’s unfortunate that people decide to act that way.”
Unfortunate? It’s pathetic.
To his credit, Fielding has endured the abuse and even come out stronger.
“I feel I already was mentally tough, but I would say I’m now in a spot where anyone can say anything to me and I look at them with a straight face,” he said. “There’s nothing you can say to me at this point that I haven’t already heard. Or read. Or told myself standing six inches from the mirror.”
Fielding has steeled himself against personal attacks, yet also understands he needs to perform in the clutch. There likely will come a time during the playoff when the Buckeyes will need him to make a kick. Maybe even to win the game.
If he makes it, great. If not, he will hear about it. Even more difficult, he will think about it.
“It’s always in the back of your mind. You don’t forget things like that,” he said of the misses against Michigan and Indiana. “You just have to move on to the next kick.”
And move away from text messages and social media. A shame.
