Sports fans boorish behavior

The BBQ Pit
1

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Pit, so if you feel like it needs to be moved go ahed, you moderatorness.

OK. I’ve just about given up on going to pro sporting events. Not because I think ticket prices are too high or because I think the players are a bunch of greey jocks in it simply for the money and the stuff that comes with the money. The whole athletes salaries thing has gotten to the point where its just a bunch of numbers. And hey, I’m not paying any of their salary, no matter how you try and slice it.

No, I’m sick of going to the games because of the fans. Or as they should be called, thugs. Or assholes. Okay, I would agree that buying a ticket entitles you to express your displeasure towards members of the opposing team and towards the refs/umpires if you feel a bad call has been made.

Booing is a good thing.

But screaming that Jason Kidd is a wife beater while the wife in question as well as Jason’s son are 5 feet away from you crosses a line.

As does screeching that (insert players name here) sucks cock and takes it up the ass and is a m’f’er to boot.

Of course, it doesn’t matter a damn to the person saying the aforementioned things that there are very likely small children with big ears sitting near him and that he might want to “tone it down.” His response would likely either be: A) It’s a free country and I’m expressing my 1st amendment rights or B) Shut the fuck up, 'fore I pound you a new asshole.

Oh, yeah, the guy is very likely to be drunk.

Then there are the fans at football games, such as the Raiders fans who beat a man so badly that he was in a coma for 2 weeks, simply because he had the gall to wear a Cowboys jersey. The Raiders were playing the Chiefs at the time. Or the Eagles fans who regularly start fights with opposing fans who have driven to the games. It’s gotten so bad at Eagles games that they actually have a jail cell, judge and court under Veterans Stadium, which on a typical Eagles home game will process about 150-250 people.

Now, if you were at home, dressed in your stained boxers, esconsed on the couch with a 12-pack by your side, you can do whatever the hell you want. You can even hump the TV to express your displeasure.

It just seems to me that while buying a ticket to a sporing game does entitle you to express your displeasure, it also brings with it the responsibility to act like a decent human being. You can do that and still boo your head off.

I do like how in the NHL at the end of every playoff series, both teams shake hands. That is sportsmanship.

2

Philly fans have the worst reputation in terms of treatment of visiting fans. I don’t have first hand experience but people i know who’ve been to Eagle games say it’s brutal.

Colorado Avalanche fans chant “Red Wings Suck”, when they aren’t playing the wings.

I’ve seen food and drinks thrown at opposing teams’ fans at games. Disgraceful.

3

I was at a Mets/Yankees game at Yankee Stadium (i myself am a Met fan). The Yankee fans there were yelling at these two Met fans in our area (i was not wearing Met garb… i know better there) and throwing food at them… it was horrible. The Met fans were just smiling and going along with it as to not cause a riot. But they were the gentlemen in not retaliating. It just wasn’t right though… how dare you throw something at someone just because they like the opposing team.

Thats Yankee fans for ya!

4

The problems in the U.S. can almost all be traced to one thing in my opinion: alcohol.

You make someone pay a lot of money to get into a sporting event, get the guy lubed up good, and he will decide that his First Amendment rights include the right to spew profanity at anyone around him.

There is really no other public form of entertainment (aside from going to a bar) where you are allowed to stick around while inebriated. If you start yelling at a movie theater, you will likely be kicked out. You can’t do it at most other live performances, stage and music whatnot.

But at a sporting event, absent fisticuffs, you can stick around completely drunk yelling at anyone and everyone.

5

Hell, those examples are nothing. Look what Japan has to deal with during World Cup soccer:

6

Ah, it’s good to see that Japan is really working on that we’re-civilized-the-rest-of-you-are-barbarians thing that has served them so well throughout the centuries.

:rolleyes:

7

I agree, there are a lot of jerk-offs at sporting events that do their best to ruin it for everybody. But as bad as it is here in the U.S., such behavior is nothing compared to that of soccer fans throughout the world. I’m sure any European, Australian, or Latin American fan can attest to the fact that the behavior of a typical soccer hooligan makes that of even “Raider Fan” or “Philly Fan” look like that of disruptive pre-schoolers. Look at the precautionary measures and warnings that are taking place in Japan and South Korea before the World Cup starts: you’d think that they’re getting ready for an invasion by the Huns. They are actually gluing rocks to the ground so as to prevent any angry drunken soccer fans from having a handy projectile to throw. Granted, measures like these are probably excessive but they wouldn’t come about were it not for the violent reputation of soccer fans.

8

True, and taking home the Cup is cool if you win, but hockey fans do it too. The Islander fans booing the Canadian anthem.
The Canadien (!) fans who threw a banana in front of Steve Weekes of Carolina (he’s black). Philly fans? They booed SANTA CLAUS!!!

The booze helps people be idiots.

9

oh - forgot the (?) Colombian fans who SHOT the guy who accidentally put one in his own goal against the US. They KILLED him and said “Thanks for the own-goal”.

The hockey fans never did that to that EDM d-man (was it Smith? Or Gregg?) and the Red Sox fans never did to to Buckner.

10

Just to point out that he was killed by Columbian gangsters who had apparently lost a load of money in a betting ring as result of that goal.
Not by “fans”…
It’s similar with English football hooligans also, they have no interest in the actual games, and have contempt for the people who go to the games in their scarves and jerseys and socialise with the opposition fans afterwards.

I don’t think you can equate these people with your regular drunken idiot at a game…

11

it’s part of the game. fans will yell “take a time-out” to webber until the guy retires. they’ll probably spout off “where’s tyra banks?” as well, after his little meltdown. i know i will. but i’m so poor i have to sit in the 20 dollar seats, so he ain’t hearing me anyway…

fans will take anything about the opposing team’s star and exploit it. maybe the whole wife-beater thing is a little rude, but he hit his wife, right? he’s giving fans ammo. like new jersey fans wouldn’t harass paul pierce if he did the same. next time phoenix comes to town you know i’m yelling out “dui” to stephon marbury. or “washed up” to david robinson, when san antonio flies in. and when we play them sorry-ass knicks, if i don’t grab my neck and make choking noses when latrell sprewell touches the rock, i’ll be dissapointed in myself.

12

Steve Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, who was president of American University in Beirut, was assasinated. Not to long after that some ASU fans chanted “PLO, PLO. Where’s your dad?”" to Steve Kerr when he was at Arizona. How classless and tasteless is that?

13

Woah, Tretiak, that pretty well takes the cake.

14

I agree with all of this…but IMHO Jason Kidd NEVER should have brought it up saying it was such a horrible thing (even though it IS) If he thought people were calling him a wife beater before…now that they know they’re getting in his head…it’s going to be worse than ever tonight. I guarantee it.

15

Let’s go to the Pit.

I never did buy that “But a pirouetting Running Back is every bit as gracefully artistic as a Prima Ballerina!” crap.

16

that steve kerr thing was pretty rough. yeah, that is taking it too far.

back in '95, i think a fan yelled something to vernon maxwell about his recently still-born baby, and vern marched up to into the stands during halftime and beat the shit out of him. that’s cold, and the fan deserved it, but professional athletes need to have thick skins with this kind of thing. it’s just the nature of the beast, and there is nothing the league can do about it. alcohol fuels the fire, but it isn’t the cause of it.

17

MAYBE the whole wife-beater thing is a little rude?

MAYBE!!!???!?

OH PLEASE:rolleyes:

So, because we live in a media age where no public figure has ANYTHING even remotely resembling a private life, anything and EVERYTHING about them is fair game, right?

Tell me, how would you like it if you were arrested and charged with spousal abuse and when you got to work your co-workers put up “Wifebeater” signs around your desk and chanted “Wifebeater” whenever they saw you.

As for Paul Pierce, a New Jersey fan did in fact hold a sign up that said “Someone Please Stab Paul Pierce Again.”

Nice.

Yeah, that’s civilized and adult bahavior.

Ok, the “time-out” stuff I can understand, but just about everything else you sad actually kinda makes me feel sorry for you.

18

I wonder if there’s a difference here because Kidd’s abusive behavior (which is horrendous) and the hecklers affect not only Kidd, but his wife and…kid. Kid Kidd.

But me yelling that Brett Favre is a fucking drug addict who gets away with murder, or yelling “Leon Lett the Ball Alone” affects nothing outside the game.

19

Most stadiums (I ain’t gonna say stadia) have “family sections” which usually include a set of tickets, hot dogs, sodas, and no alcohol served in the section. While part of me feels like it’s admitting defeat to the boors, it’s probably the only solution that can keep both the parents-with-young-kids audience and the dedicated-and-vocal-fan audience happy. In the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the family section is in the upper deck directly behind home plate, and it’s a pretty good deal for a family of four.

'course, I’m in the stands shouting “EIGHTY FIVE MILLION, RANDY” whenever Randy Moss drops a pass…

20

You see, but that doesn’t get in anyone’s head but Randy.

Some could argue that by jacking his wife around Kidd brought this heartache upon himself, but taunting him just hurts his wife and child more. Randy Moss’ salary doesn’t affect anyone but him.