In a long post about Friday's madness, National Review's Jim Geraghaty writes about a situation I've run into before:
I
November 23rd, 2004
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In a long post about Friday's madness, National Review's Jim Geraghaty writes about a situation I've run into before:
I
In 2002, I attended a Giants-Dodgers game in LA. I was wearing black and orange (Giants’ colors) and cheering the Giants. I was not taunting anyone, just being a fan. Yet I had some popcorn and a drink tossed on me. (I will note, however, that the Dodgers fans sitting next to me were appalled at the conduct of their fellow fans). And I am embarrassed when I am at a home game in SF and rowdy (read “drunk”) Giants fans harass fans of the other team. (And I don’t even venture into Raider Nation, even though I root for the team). Like you, I’ve become more inclined to watch games in the comfort of my home.
I’m surprised and dismayed to hear about your treatment at FedEx Field. I haven’t been to a game in a few years now, but in the not too distant past razzing of opposing fans was indeed, in my experience, good-natured.
I can believe anything of those corporate welfare queens north of us, though.
I have Browns season tickets near but not in the Dawg Pound area, and had several people in Steeler dress near me in our game with Pittsburgh a week or so ago. Fights and verbal taunts are common in that bitter rivalry, but I think they are the exception. not the rule. The fans sitting right behind me in full Steeler garb during that game were expressing some trepidation about what might happen to them leaving the Stadium, considering the pasting the Steelers had put on the Browns that day, but I kept assuring them that most of us Browns fans are harmless puppy dawgs, like me. Eventually, they came around. I did notice a few Steeler fans going “incognito” , with no idenfifying dress, but clearly rooting for the Bad Guys. They owned up to it when I asked, and it was clearly fear of harrassment that caused them to have “dressed down”. Bottom line: a few drunks and loudmouths are all it takes to intimidate visitors and give the rest of us a bad name. Well, that and the memory of a little bottle-throwing incident a few years back.
That said, the Dawg Pound is another story altogether. Much more inebriation, many more fights in that seating area. There were several arrests and ejections even this year in a game that wasn’t all that competitive. The folks who wear Steeler jerseys and hats into the Pound for a Pittsburgh game are either brave or stupid. Sad but true. Some things don’t change. The other games don’t have that kind of hatred or intensity, even in the Pound.