Super OT: Football Fan Violence Caught on Tape
This is super OT, but it's too good not to share. A fight broke out in the stands at the Vikings-Rams game. I'll let you watch for yourselves (and can someone smarter than me imbed (or embed?) the video?), but the punchline is that the guy with high ground who throws the first punch and looks like he's winning the fight gets thrown like a chihuahua down 5 rows of bleachers...
http://www.tmz.com/2018/09/28/rams-vikings-fight-stands-thursday-night-football-nfl/
On a more serious note (or question maybe?), what is it about NFL football that makes 30-60 year old white guys think they're tough and want to fight?
September 28th, 2018 at 2:29 PM ^
Just watch the South Park little league episode. Randy will explain everything
September 28th, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^
I thought this was america!
September 28th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
So is this a football thing? Considering going to Wrigley for one game playoff should my crew tie the cubs and I've never been surrounded by rival fans at away game since my experiences are similar to M games at NW.
September 28th, 2018 at 7:08 PM ^
With Wrigley, if you're not an asshole, you're probably fine. You're probably way better off the closer you are to the field. And steer clear of the bleachers. For the playoffs, you're most likely going to be around season ticket holders with way more stake in the franchise than your normal regular season tourist/local drunk asshole.
Really, in most situations as an away fan, you're going to be fine as long as you're not an asshole. Don't provoke, don't respond, be generally friendly and good-natured, and you're good.
September 29th, 2018 at 2:06 AM ^
You should be fine. Cubs fans are sissies.
September 28th, 2018 at 2:34 PM ^
You think it's nfl rather than beer? Okay...
September 28th, 2018 at 2:55 PM ^
I get what you're saying but considering the fewer amount of games i think it's worth discussion as compared to number of fights at baseball and basketball games. I say this without having any data and using anecdotes only.
September 28th, 2018 at 3:20 PM ^
Baseball fans drink beer - a lot of beer - but I can't remember seeing a fight at a Tiger game. I've been to just a handful of Lion games, but every one had fights breaking out.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
Fair point. So alcohol alone doesn't seem to be enough. Combine that with watching an incredibly violent sport and there they go...
September 28th, 2018 at 5:01 PM ^
I saw a guy get knocked out with one punch to the jaw outside of Safeco Field after a Mariners game. For the most part, though, George Carlin has it right:
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being. Preferably, a stranger.
September 28th, 2018 at 5:50 PM ^
I would disagree with Carlin. I’ve seen fairly unstable people at baseball games. Football doesn’t have a monopoly on punch-happy fans.
September 28th, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
you should see a raiders game. its like a parolee convention. beer, batteries, rocks....and that's for other raider fans. it is thunderdome in an outdoor stadium. i have been to a bunch of pro games and the worst were by far in california and had the raiders involved.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:46 PM ^
This. Not uncommon for someone to get stabbed in the parking lot before/after a game. Odd that it’s usually Raider fan-on-Raider fan violence.
September 28th, 2018 at 2:53 PM ^
I for one was so happy when football left LA. I’ve lived here forever and the fans here are the worse and disgusting. At the LA Coliseum I’ve seen lots of fights.
Worst was back in the day when the Raiders were playing Tampa Bay and the fight was so bad in the end zone w the Raider fans taking on the Tampa group they stopped the game and everyone watched for like 20 plus minutes. I saw men thrown down 15 Ross of stairs like it was nothing. Hardy Nickerson jumped into the end zone to try and help break it up.
LA is the worse and I can wait for the new stadium to PRICE OUT these losers! Raiders, Chargers, Rams and Niner Fans are the worse I’ve seen anywhere in the country where I’ve been.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:52 PM ^
From my experience the order goes Raiders, Rams. 49ers then Chargers. I've seen so many fights at the LA Coliseum and in most cases it is fans of the same team fighting. I've heard it is equally bad at Chavez Ravine, but I hate baseball so I can't really say from personal experience.
If you want a good fan experience in LA your best bet is to get tickets to a LAFC game and sit close to the supporters section.
September 28th, 2018 at 9:37 PM ^
That Tampa Bay @ LA Raiders game was a few days before Christmas in 1993 --- the full game video is on YouTube.
Between the game being delayed as the fans acted up and it being a dirty game in itself (Tampa Bay wanted to rumble w/ the Raiders from play 1 for who knows what reason), it was a uniquely odd game to watch. The Christmas spirit!
September 28th, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^
Should we really be celebrating the guy who does the tossing? Isn't he the one who puts his hands on the woman in the Vikings jersey at the beginning?
September 28th, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
Funny stuff.
September 28th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
Drunks gonna drunk.
September 28th, 2018 at 3:03 PM ^
I have been near altercations at Lions games, and most of the time, even though you sometimes note that some are sober and apparently inclined to be nasty people regardless, a fair number of the incidents are started by or between people who are $50 (which is about 2 beers at Ford Field) or more into their beer expenditures.
September 28th, 2018 at 3:04 PM ^
On a more serious note (or question maybe?), what is it about NFL football that makes 30-60 year old white guys think they're tough and want to fight?
Worldwide, pro football attracts hooligans. This is true whether the football in question is soccer or gridiron.
September 28th, 2018 at 3:44 PM ^
The best part is that the guy who got thrown 6 rows just stayed down there and continued to yell and act like a tough guy but never made an attempt to move back up to his seat. I guess he decided his new seat was safer and had a better view.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:00 PM ^
Skol Douchebags!
September 28th, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^
I live in Minnesota Vlad...that really hurts!
(I'm a transplanted Michigander, so I did actually laugh out loud at that though.)
Thanks for the chuckle.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:10 PM ^
Soccer hooligans in Europe have a long head start. Some seem to go to games in order to fight with rival fans rather than watch the action on the field, and they continue the battle outside the stadium. More potent tribalism? Cheaper booze? Cheaper tickets? Boredom? Whatever . . . . It is always easy to find an excuse for over-reacting.
The ancient Celts used to fight a bit like this: the champions would engage, cheered on by the rest of the clan; if your guys lost, you ran away, hotly pursued by the victors. Kept casualties down. Then the Romans spoiled it all by professionalizing war.
September 28th, 2018 at 5:47 PM ^
Look up the term “Millward Brick” sometime.
September 28th, 2018 at 5:56 PM ^
Googled it....nothing under that spelling.
September 28th, 2018 at 6:03 PM ^
Whoops! Millwall brick
September 28th, 2018 at 4:34 PM ^
Person with the white shirt. Man or woman?
September 28th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
When Animals Attack...
Seriously, I think it's primarily alcohol and also being mad that they are no longer young and the alpha male (if they were ever one). Basically it's a recipe of showing everyone that he still has it. Watch Al Bundy more and you'll get your answers to a lot questions relating to older males.
September 28th, 2018 at 4:57 PM ^
Beer.
September 28th, 2018 at 5:04 PM ^
tmz? really?
September 28th, 2018 at 5:46 PM ^
That’s not just a football team. Any arena with rowdy fans and voluminous liquor can create fights.
Truth be told, some of the most volatile fans I’ve seen are at baseball games.
September 28th, 2018 at 5:53 PM ^
"Grab your shit baby!" best part of the video
September 28th, 2018 at 6:08 PM ^
I literally did that to a guy in Michigan stadium about 5 years ago. He was sitting in my wife's seat when we came into the stadium and on his phone. We asked him nicely about 5 times to move and he completely ignored us. My wife started to get upset with him (verbally) and he jumped to his feet and got right in her face. My adrenaline kicked in and I picked him up and threw him about 8-9 rows down (he landed on someone) but candidly I never planned it-it just happened when he threatened her.
The saying "you don't know your own strength" definitely applies.
September 28th, 2018 at 7:02 PM ^
Why not go to the usher after, I don't know, the second time?
September 28th, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^
Bunch of idiots at games. That's why you stay on the couch or pay a lot of money for good seats so the trash doesn't get in your ear and start fights.
September 28th, 2018 at 7:00 PM ^
I've seen things get dangerously close to exactly this at Michigan Stadium over the past 5-10 years, including one fight that included a drunk guy beating on a woman in the row behind him. People complain about how "country club" the stadium can be, but that's what prevents stuff like this. Once the "up in back, I'm going to stand" confrontations started, once people started taking it upon themselves to try to tell other people how to watch football games, once being loud and belligerent started to be a perceived ideal, that's when we started having stuff like this happen in our section. It came almost simultaneously with the rise of StubHub. We used to know just about everyone in the radius around us, year after year. Now? It's a new drunk moron every week.
It's one of the reasons I've started being way less enthusiastic about going to games these days. I'm just sick of drunk assholes and confrontations and having to worry about what happens when some StubHub idiot who never sat there before, and never will again starts to cause trouble.
September 28th, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
On the pugilistic effects of alcohol, some years ago I took the deposition of a gentleman from hillbilly country whose medical records showed lots of injuries from bar fights. I asked him, "How many bar fights have you been in?" He looked at me and said, "Have you ever been in a bar? (pause) I guess not the kind that I go to."
He didn't even sustain the worst bar-fight injury in that lawsuit. Another guy was rendered a quadriplegic when someone hit him over the head with a beer bottle because he was hitting on the assailant's girl friend.
It's almost enough to make you swear off drinking. But I think if you stay out of the bars in that Southern Missouri town, you're probably okay.
September 28th, 2018 at 8:33 PM ^
Same old reason...liquid courage.
I've seen it at NFL games, NBA games, and of course NHL games. As I wrote in another thread, even had a drunk idiot spit on my kid at MSU quite some time ago. (yes I did give in to the primal urge that time and got my only stadium hook in 58 years.)
I always laugh at people who are so f-ed up they won't even remember the event.
Not a prude, but getting to the point in my old ass life that drunks annoy the hell out of me.
September 28th, 2018 at 9:14 PM ^
Going out on a limb here, but after reading through the comments....it's probably alcohol.
DUH!
September 29th, 2018 at 1:39 AM ^
Those aren't bleachers. They're normal seats.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^
Everyone is saying alcohol...but it looks like the thrower hit the lady in the Vikings Jersey.
I’m not a fighter but if a guy hits a woman around me, I’d be pissed off too.
Caveat of not knowing the whole story applies.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
White trash Buckeye fans no doubt