As many of you know, I love football and support God’s true team, the Chicago Bears. However, I have long complained that I never take the kids to football games because of the pervasive swearing and drunkenness. For families, the most obnoxious element has taken over these games, drunken, adolescent adults who use games as an excuse to shed every notion of decency and civility. We are experiencing what Europe has faced with soccer hooligans as families are increasing abandoning stadiums. Last night showed the depth of the problem. After fans recently went to his house after a loss to berate him, Texans quarterback Matt Schaub lay on the field with an injured leg as Texan fans cheered his injury.
It was a frightful demonstration of how base and crude football fans have become. They no longer treat players as humans. They do not consider this man’s wife or children or all the things that he has done for the team. It was truly disgusting as players of both teams expressed after the game.
This is precisely the type of fans that I do not want to expose my kids to at a stadium. We stay home and watch on television. It is not a perfect solution of course. I know a number of families who have sold their season tickets due to the obnoxious, drunken conduct of fans. We have surrendered stadiums to the lowest common denominator of society, but the alternative is to force your children to listen to some drunk loser swearing throughout a game and cheering injuries of players. With families withdrawing, it seems to be only increasing the problem as obnoxious fans feed off each other.
As an ardent football fan, I find the trend at stadiums to be really depressing despite efforts of some stadiums to nail the worst offenders. It is a great game that is being degraded by a segment of the fan base that is using games as an excuse for booze-soaked venting at fans and players.
What more needs be said….
Oh.. I hear North Texas is going to lift the alcohol ban at games….. Revenues…..
at ddickerson2013 – um no Matt Schaub is not and has never been a “great player”. At best he is an above average NFL QB and he is not in a slump he is losing his skills rapidly. The guy can’t get the ball down the field and can’t put enough zip on the ball to get it to the outside before the pick six. Schaub is a guy that can get the job done if everything goes according to plan. He can’t improvise and now it looks like he can’t even make the throws. Perhaps he is hurt or has a dead arm or maybe he is just done. With that said he is a great role model for kids – works hard, plays hard and keeps calm. He and his family have been great for Houston and the community, but his time is coming to an end here. If he still has gas in the tank he can maybe be still productive for another team next year, but he is done in Houston (unless he pulls an amazing trick and wins the Super Bowl).
As to the Texan fans, please lets reflect on how many were doing it. Yes it is horrible and those doing it should be called out but it was a small very vocal minority in the crowd. Portraying all Texans fans as barbaric due to the actions of probably about 10% of the crowd is a bit much. Was it horrible, yes. Should it ever happen, no. Did all Texans fans participate, NO. Blaming all Texan fans or Houston for the actions of a small vocal stupid minority is kind of like saying all Muslims are violent terrorist because of a small minority.
Jonathan you may believe that your Bears are His Team but i know different. His real team was the Toutle Lake (Wa) HS Ducks 1939 6-man football team on which i played. You and Vincent Bugliosi are my favorite war crimes writers.
Spindell –
If you need a reason to stop completely, here’s one: five concussions in one football game. That news item was the last straw for me.
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/2012/10/20/one-pop-warner-game-results-five-concussions/nkJydxoAsEGOF0jPjimtWK/story.html
Five concussions of children aged 10 to 12 years old. The referees ignored the “mercy” rule of a 28 point lead (the game finished 52-0), and the coach of the losing team didn’t quit despite not having enough players to finish the game. And the parents were the worst, for sitting there doing nothing as their children were brutalized by a larger team. What exactly did anyone gain from it?
A similar case was in 2010, when a private school forfeited a game because their opponents averaged 50 pounds more per player, several of whom had offers from Division I-A football factories. The coach-slash-athletic director of St. George’s was called a “coward” for protecting his students. Some in the sports media were calling it the “pussification of football”, more concerned about their own entertainment than other people’s lives.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130511940
A few years ago, USA Hockey banned bodychecking for kids under 14, and most of the major hockey playing nations do the same – Canada was the last to enact that rule this past spring. Concussions and long term brain trauma may cause hockey to ban contact altogether, even in the pros, but it could otherwise still be the same game. Football can’t do that, it’s either full contact or flag football.
ModernMiner: it also has to do, I think, with the fact that the fans in the stands are the owners of the team. Literally. The Packers are owned by the fans, with most fans owning less than 1% each. Doesn’t matter, they feel the pride. That is THEIR team.
P. Smith,
Frontline’s “League of Denial” also has just about ended my watching football. When you see the documentary you understand that Football Players are little different from Roman Gladiators, except that the gladiators death was quicker.
This is a growing and troubling phenomenon. It has not made its way to all American sports arenas, thank goodness. As an observer of human behavior and motivations for the past many decades, I have begun to wonder about the Internet as being a driving force in the coarsening of behavior. We have seen coarse behavior on this blog, but nothing compared to sites such as YouTube where comments are often a cross between a bar brawl and sewage lagoon.
We are only a few miles from one of the more popular NASCAR tracks. They have a large section of the stands carved out as “no alcohol.” That is enforced. When I take my daughter, that is where I get tickets. As for the crowd, no sports crowd is more partisan and vocal when cheering for their favorite drivers. Some drivers are roundly disliked; however, when one of those drivers hits the wall or the engine explodes in flames, instead of cheers there is a collective gasp and people hold their breath until the driver lowers the window net and waves.
I have been very angry about the so called fans! Anybody that is or was an actual athlete knows that slumps happen! Could you imagine if every mistake you made at work was publicized? Matt is a great player (obviously, he made it into the NFL), he is in a slump. I don’t understand people ever cheering when an athlete gets hurt. They should instantly be removed from the stadium. As far as drinking, these are the same people that would be wasted at any location! It is a shame to not take your kids to the stadium due to fear. Stadiums are still one of my favorite places!
Having lived in northern Ohio all my life, I am considered a Brown’s fan, though in all actuality my favorite team has always been the Packers.
I don’t go to games so really have no idea how fans behave but I believe the Dog Pound has always been notorious.
However, all the young parents I know take their children to the preseason special Family Night. It’s not a game but a training session and the children get to meet and interact with the players … fireworks, music, food … from what I’ve been told, it’s a really great time for everybody. Admission is free and thousands of kids attend with their parents.
Three concussions within two years playing high school football — first time, couldn’t remember the play; second time, couldn’t remember the game; third time, don’t remember three days including the trip to the ER,
Finally, blew out my knee and never recovered. Probably saved my life.
Should have stopped after the first one, but — small town Texas and Friday night glory. Better yet, someone should have stopped me — but I was a really good player. Could hit hard.
Football games are more like Gladiator Sports–from the quality of the events to the reaction of the fans w/their “Mob Mentality”.
I do believe fans have a right to direct their dissatisfaction with our Head Coaches for their decision to continue to use first string quarterbacks who are struggling week after week, rather then call up their 2nd String Quarterback who can improve with practice at the end of the season!
Go Texans!