I want to THANK fans for being hostile at FedEx!

[GhostRider]

I'm a long-time Redskin fan from England (UK).

My first love in sports is what you guys call soccer. In England in the 1950's and 60's (so I'm told) it was a joy to go to a game as there was an atmosphere of rivalry but mutual respect between the two sets of fans within the stadia.

Then in the 1970's and 80's this atmosphere turned nastier with taunting between opposing fans escalating from the occasional fight to mass organised brawling and rioting on numerous occasions both inside and outside the stadium, weapons including knives became commomplace and were often used. Fans travelled to opposing cities with the intent of having a good fight with no regard to the game. It became a dangerous activity to walk about wearing the 'wrong' colours for fear of being kicked senseless or slashed, there were also a number of deaths attributable to soccer related violence.

I had always heard that US football stadia were safe places where you could go and watch a game, sit amongst the opposing fans, cheer for your team, enjoy some friendly rivalry and banter and have no fear that you would return home safely at the end of an enjoyable day of watching a wonderful sport. I had also heard that as the home team fans would outnumber the visiting fans then the away team on the pitch could expect to hear a lot of noise whilst they were on offense, which is fair enough as you've got to make something of homefield advantage.

I was lucky enough to get tickets for my first Redskins game for my 40th birthday this year. That game was at Tampa Bay so I went along with my girlfriend (who bought the tickets) and sat amongst a whole load of Bucs fans whilst wearing my Redskins shirt. I had some good conversations and friendly repartee with those Bucs fans around me, cheered for my team when they came onto the field, cheered when we scored or made a good play. All was fine until we scored our touchdown to make the score 19-21, when I stood up to cheer the touchdown somebody from about ten rows behind me threw an almost empty plastic cup of beer at me. Now the beer in the cup hit the poeple behind me and the cup hit the guy sitting in front of me, so no harm done to me . At that point I thought "Shoot this could turn nasty", however the Bucs fans around me apologized for "that a******* behaviour - he's not a real fan". My faith was instantly restored in the American way of sports watching that I believed existed, so I cheered when we scored the two extra points. The rest of the game passed without further bad incident (apart from the misbeahving refs ! and the nois of the Bucs fans to disturb our offense ) and just as much friendly rivalry that had ensued before the aforemention unsavoury incident.

The point that I'm trying to make is that watching sports should be fun and safe for all, and if you begin to go down the road of intimidating opposing fans (rather than the opposing team) it may snowball out of control to the levels of violence seen in my country in the past few decades and watching sport then becomes no fun at all, except for those who are there just for the thrill of the violent inter-fan encounters.

So let's make Fed-Ex the noisiest most hostile stadium in the league for opposing players to visit but vent your feelings towards the field, that's where it matters. If their fans feel that they want to come too, then let them but treat them with the respect that we would want to receive when we visit their stadium to support our team. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some rivalry and banter between fans but be careful how far it goes as I've seen first hand what can happen when good sports go bad.

Good story, I agree a sporting event should be about fun. Good natured heckling is all fun, threatning people is not. This is Washington not Philthy.

[tlk2rn]

Agreed, there is nothing wrong with good ol fashioned smack talking. And if the opposing teams fans want to fight me...so be it. I will never physically or verbally assault another person but I do believe in talking smack, and lots of it. Good old wholesome smack talk.

[slm2856]

I was glad to see someone else bring this up as it was on my mind as well. All the self-described, "Protect OUR house" bad-asses 'round NFL stadiums have NO IDEA what hard core is!!! Pick up "Among The Thugs", "Steaming In", or "Soul Crew" if you want to see where all this stupidity ultimately leads.

If this is REALLY what you want, skip ahead to the part where the game becomes merely an excuse for the crews to get together & duke it out. At least they finally figured out that they stood the best chance of getting what they wanted by picking a time & place AWAY from the stadium. They also figured out that you don't mess with "civilians."

Leave the game to those who understand what sport is supposed to be.

Cheers,

CLBinMD

I think there is a difference between "hardcore" at a football game and hardcore on the streets. I think there has only been one person defending fighting. The truth is there is going to be cussing, people drinking etc. It is a case of "it is what it is". But the word sucks.. come on, I wouldn't even describe that as vulgar.

[CLBinMD]

CLBinMD, I'm in 422, row 29, seats 1, 2, 3. Are you the father son duo that sits down there?

CLBinMD can probably attest to the general good natured rowdiness of 422, there have even been a few fights, but that's not a Skins thing, it's what happens when you take young, pumped up people and put them in close quarters. All in all I can say our section is pretty fan friendly, we talk plenty of trash, but are respectful. When I was a kid I went to an O's game with my father at Memorial Stadium and some Mets fans treated my dad like crap, it made me feel horrible and from then on I swore I would never do that to a family. My brother and best friend get extremely rowdy, mostly hitting each other after a touchdown. If you're in your 20's and an opposing fan talking trash you deserve an earful, but kids are off limits. If a son is there with his father, regardless of what team they cheer for, they need to be treated right. A dad and his son at the ballpark is a sacred thing.

I don't know that we're THE father & son duo but..... yup, I'm usually there with my boy. My wife & son took the seats up there for the Giants game & they got picked for the Deam Seats upgrade!!!!!

Which is probably the perfect segue to my last thought on the subject.....

Do you know what their favorite story was about the Dream Seats? It was NOT about being able to say whatever they wanted to Giants fans or even Giants players. NOR was it about who was insulting whom in the stands around them. RATHER, it was about yelling for the 'Skins & watching the Giants on the sidelines gesturing to each other that they couldn't execute on this play or that play because they couldn't HEAR!!

THAT's what home field advantage is all about. Not all this other junk...

Cheers,

CLBinMD

[fmorris]

Hostile Of an enemy 1. war, warfare, fighting, combat, action, bloodshed.QUOTE]

Well I have read this whole argument and boy is it picky. Look bro, it's all fun to discuss and debate but jeeze. You are arguing this whole time over one word. Hostile.(btw it's real cute how you went and got the definition)

Just so everyone on the board knows don't use the wrong word when posting or the word police will attack.

I think Sumodat pointed out that you only see what you wanna see and this little quote of yours proves it. Try to follow me on this, you put fighting in bold but I have another word in there that could have been what sumodat meant even though it's not what you wanted to see. Action

See that, and action can mean alot of different things. Just wanted to try to help you expand your thought a little beyond what you interpret.

It actually had very little to do with that one word. I was picking. Read the rest of the post, and you'll see where I was going. But it does show that word choice sets the tone for a person's intent.

Why would you bash the very people that you claim to agree with? Make any sense to you? Call them vagina's in one post, and then claim to agree with everything they say in another? Maybe I am the one who doesn't get it.

[Skinz_4_life]

talking smack and all that stuff is cool, anything that deals with words is cool. anything else such as beer throwing, anything dealing with messing up a car and invadings ones space is not.

If u think we need to get rid of the u suck chants u clearly need to grow some balls

I do think we need to strike a little fear in opposing fans. look at some threads around the site people are scared to go to philly. look at the cardinal game where our fans turned an away game to a "home" game can u imagine how the cardinal team/organization must have felt.

remember the 99 home OPENER game against dallas when u can hear the dallas chant clearly on tv what an embarrasment. Dallas was calling DC their second home

we need to claim our home back, the eagles game earlier this year had to many eagle fans i dont think their will be as many skins fans in Philly as there waz philly fans in DC and we have the playoffs on the line.

[GoSkins561]

I went to 6 of the 8 games, and I must say Fed Ex isnt as bad as people are saying. I agree with the thread starter, as long as your not invading the personal space (with your body or any other objects) of a visiting teams fan than all is good. Let them have it, It is always nice to see other teams fans leaving well before the end of the game because they cant take it any more and or dont want to be around to catch the **** after the game. The fewer visiting teams fans the better, for those who choose to brave Fed Ex, I have no problem them being miserable.

[GIBBS4PREZ]

:insane:

It actually had very little to do with that one word. I was picking. Read the rest of the post, and you'll see where I was going. But it does show that word choice sets the tone for a person's intent.

Why would you bash the very people that you claim to agree with? Make any sense to you? Call them vagina's in one post, and then claim to agree with everything they say in another? Maybe I am the one who doesn't get it.

He doesn't agree with them.Thats the whole point. A lot of us are sick of the fans that come to the game and just sit on there hands. His whole point was saying thankyou to the people who don't just sit on there hands. He was thanking the people that stand up for the team that we love and chear for. I never once heard him thank the people that start fights or throw beer or curse around young kids. It was real simple,"I wanna thank fans for being hostile in fedEx". You for some reason saw the word hostile and got the wrong idea. I guess Sumodat should have been carrying his handy dictionary with him and then he could have used a better word. :doh: You now it is possible to heckle other fans but not to take it too far. Here's a simple question. Would you let a bunch of Cowboys fans watch the game at your house without talking trash? Would you expect that if you went to there house for the game that they wouldn't talk trash to you and heckle you if you were at there stadium?

[Taylor 36]

Very true. If I ever go to ST louis to see us play the Rams I could understand the banter back and forth but I should feel like I could take my kids to see a game without them wondering if they're going home alive or not.

It has nothing to do with testosterone. It has more to do with being an adult with restraint as opposed to being a childish freakin' idiot. Make noise, dog the opposing fans but don't curse them or get in their face and don't do it if they have kids.

:applause: I'm glad there are still people with common sense and decency still around.

[Gracelander]

I agree with most of whats said here. I personally haven't gotten into any physical altercations, have been part of alot of shouting matches, both in the stands with an Eagles group last year or in the mens room jungle.

I can't imagine throwing things at someone regardless of what team there routing for, outside of insults. Hell most of the time believe it or not after an afternoon of back and forth banter with people around our sections we usually shake hands or exit the stadium on a good note.

:eaglesuck or should I say Eagles stink (don't want to offend)