One great thing about athletes using social media is that it lets them get closer to the fans. One really terrible thing about athletes using social media is that it lets them get closer to the fans... Steve Smith wrote a thank you to his fans and former team on his facebook page this evening.

What followed was a fairly disgusting torrent of racist, homophobic, foul and hate filled comments, most of which wished him a career ending injury. This is because a football player got a better offer from another team and took it. And while in this case it is Giants fans who are guilty of this awful display, I'm not going to act like any other fans would be that much different. But I think what was most surprising about the level of hatred and vitriol here is that it's not even an anonymous forum. It's facebook. So most of these people have their name and photo attached to this awful stuff.

So, if you can stomach it, hold your nose and check out some of what these people had to say to Smith after the jump...

We'll start off with a real fun one. The most racist and foul of the bunch and yet four people "liked it."

Well, that last one is kinda funny.