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Sunday afternoon, Green Bay Packers star wide receiver Jordy Nelson reportedly tore his ACL during a preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A lot can be said when the No. 1 wideout on a team favored in Vegas and by pro football pundits to appear in the Super Bowl goes down with what’s almost certainly a season-ending knee injury, but for any rational Packers fan, the proper reaction is some variation of “That really sucks. Hopefully Randall Cobb and Davante Adams can step up in his absence.” Of course, as Nelson’s status became public knowledge, Twitter did what it’s known to do: clog up timelines with crazy, half-cocked responses and bold, bleak predictions from uninformed people eager to spread their negativity throughout the social media population in 140-character doses.

As we continue to look ahead at the regular season with a predominate sense of optimism, we sifted through the social media noise and collected some of the most emotional, kneejerk, and most all-around tasteless tweets composed in the wake of Nelson’s ACL tear.

1. Green Bay’s season is already over
The instant “ACL” and “Jordy” were mentioned in close proximity, armchair pundits came out in droves to declare the 2015 Green Bay Packers season to be over. Back on Earth, though, the loss of their top receiver means the Pack went from absolute NFC favorite to one of the teams favored to win the NFC Championship. Instead of automatic division champ to most, Green Bay has been downgraded to likely division champ. In 2013, Randall Cobb missed 10 games, Aaron Rodgers missed seven (more like eight, as he exited a game in the first quarter), and Green Bay still won the division. To some, the sky is falling at Lambeau. Fortunately, somebody talented will be there to catch it. Settle the fuck down, people.

2. I’m not watching football again this season (or ever again)
Though fans may be loathe to admit it, their thoughts and actions have absolutely no impact on the game of football. Not on the outcome of individual games, not on the performance of individual players, and not on the inner workings of the NFL. Still, that doesn’t stop many of them from lobbing the empty “I’m never watching football again!” threat every time something goes to shit. Like a drug addict or a True Detective season 2 viewer, however, they’ll be back, no matter how dire things get.

3. The NFL should do away with preseason
The NFL’s four-game preseason gets a lot of flack, yet fans continue to spend an awful lot of money and time on something they apparently loathe. And it’s not just fans: Troy Aikman took a dump on preseason after yesterday’s games, as did Aaron Rodgers. Don’t like preseason? Don’t watch it, and don’t play it, and maybe it’ll go away. Hell, it’s almost worked in the past for the Pro Bowl.

4. Mike McCarthy shouldn’t play starters in preseason
When it comes to the Green Bay Packers, the buck stops with head coach Mike McCarthy. Therefore, McCarthy and McCarthy alone is to blame for Nelson’s injury, apparently, and is a complete fucking idiot to boot. The over-the-top fan rants go something like this: Why are you even playing starters in preseason, Mike? What about a starter like Nelson could you possibly be evaluating? Why on Earth would you…wait. Well, um, fans kind of have a point on this one…

5. Fantasy football ranting
With the rampant popularity of fantasy football, a hardship that would’ve struck only Packer backers now ripples throughout fans of every team. Regardless of your league’s scoring format, Nelson is easily a top 10 receiver and seemed to be taken in the late first round or early second in most leagues who were foolish enough to draft this early. As of Thursday, ESPN had Nelson listed as the 5th ranked wideout and the 16th rated player overall, ahead of his quarterback. So whether you’re a fan of the real team he’s on, or the fake team you run, this flat out sucks. And if you happen to own Nelson in fantasy and be a Packers fan, we feel for you, dude. Then again, it could be worse. At least you’re not a guy who just experienced an excruciating knee injury in front of thousands of people and will lose a year of his career during the prime of his career.   

6. Crying
The world can be a tough place full of senseless death, abhorrent treatment towards animals, millions of impoverished people, and random tragedies that strike throughout the planet every moment. Combine that with an affable stranger sustaining a non-life-threatening injury while playing a game, and it’s enough to bring someone to tears. Yes, in the football sense, this is terrible news. Yet in the world sense (and even as a Packers fan), worse things could happen.

7. Maybe Jordy can come back for the playoffs
After denial (“It’s probably just a sprained ankle…right?”) and anger (“Fucking preseason and that idiot McCarthy!”) on the stages of grief comes bargaining. Okay, okay, they say Jordy is out for the season…but nobody said anything about the POST-season! Forget that the recovery for ACL surgery is usually somewhere between eight and 12 months and that wideouts constantly make cuts that put stress on their knees. Nelson doesn’t need knees to play. He has heart. He has moxie. He has…he has…about a year before he can resume football activities. Bring on the sadness and acceptance that Randall Cobb and Davante Adams will be just fine, and Aaron Rodgers has done a lot more with much less at his disposal.

8. The Lions will win the division now
While Green Bay’s fan base was thrown into a state of collective mourning and misplaced anger over news regarding the severity of Nelson’s injury, Detroit Lions fans had cause for morbid celebration. Without so much a regular season down being played, many Lions fans—and even some kneejerk Packers “fans”—took to Twitter post-Nelson injury to declare the NFC North’s perennial runner-up would leapfrog the receiver-rich team that employs a guy named Rodgers and claim the division.

 

9. But what about my Jordy Nelson jersey?
Sometimes the fuss surrounding a season-ending injury can be more mundane in nature. Forget the player’s health or the team’s diminished prospects: What the fuck am I supposed to do with a jersey for a guy who will be playing the same number of downs as me this year? (That number, of course, is zero.) In the case of Nelson, the answer is to 1.) not wear his jersey at all, 2.) laugh at “some puss” still wearing his jersey, and 3.) wear it anyway and soak up the sympathy while walking the aisles of a Wegman’s grocery store.

10. Jordy is a pussy
Oh, man! You see how that guy who spends his offseasons working on a farm basically shredded his knee ligaments and still managed to briskly jog to the locker room for further evaluation? What a softy!