perspective: Pittman's Response about social media.

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I can't help but like the dude, damn!

Last year’s Texas A&M game ended when a 42-yard field goal attempt from Arkansas kicker Cam Little — are you ready for this? — hit on top of the right upright and, by rule, was no good.

Inches. Literally inches from winning — or losing for the 10th time in the past 11 against the rival Aggies.

If the ball clears the right upright and goes over it — instead of hitting on top of it — the field goal is good and Arkansas has a 2-game winning streak in the series. But the unthinkable happened, and when it does, buddy, someone has to pay.

Arkansas has had 5 more 1-possession losses since, each as confounding as the Texas A&M loss. Two weeks ago, BYU went into Fayetteville and won, in part, because of unthinkable, unlucky special teams mistakes.

One of those mistakes was a shanked, 10-yard punt from Max Fletcher that gave the BYU offense a short field, which turned into a touchdown.

The response on social media, of course, was right down the middle with every other response to every other mistake made by a player in every other game by every other fan base.

“Fletcher was at practice on Monday. He’s lower than low,” Pittman said. “I walk by him, I said, ‘Hey Max, what’s wrong with you?’ He said, ‘Social media.’”

Went all the way to Australia to get a guy who punts it 10 yards.

How much does it cost to send him back to Australia?

“I said, ‘Max, they didn’t say I’m fat on there, did they?’” Pittman said. “He says, ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘What about my chest, did they say anything about that?’ He started smiling, he says ‘Yes, sir.’ I said, ‘Was I supposed to get fired on Sunday?’ He says, ‘Yes, sir.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m still here. They got 2 out of 3 right.’”

Pittman gets paid millions to coach football. He gets it, he’s fair game.

Come at him, take your best personal and professional shots. Criticize him, scream from the top of Signal Hill that he should be fired if the Hogs lose 1 more of those damn 1-possession games.

But it’s a different story when the nonsense reaches players, when the anonymous poison infects those who haven’t — over years of dealing with the same crap — developed thick skin.

Pittman didn’t want to deactivate his Twitter account but did, walking away from the unhinged, unhappy and unforgiving before the toxic environment began affecting even him.

“We need to help these kids,” Pittman said. “There’s a lot more going on in their life right now than possibly when I was a kid. And I think a lot of it has to do with (phones).”

A lot of it, like it or not — and fair or not — has to do with winning, too.

There’s more nonsense on the horizon with every potential loss. It doesn’t matter that Texas A&M is one of the most talented teams in the SEC.

All that matters to the social media muscles is Arkansas is playing a team that’s playing its backup quarterback — even though this is Aggies QB Max Johnson’s 4th season in the SEC, and his career TD/INT ratio is 42/7.

And if the Hogs don’t win, guess who’s hearing it?

“I think everybody thinks it’s OK to bash public figures and people,” Pittman said. “That could be musicians, coaches, whatever it may be. I’ll be honest with you, I just got sick of it.”

Stand down, social media muscles.