WP: Opinions; The Redskins Are Okay, But Their Fans Aren't

[Monte51Coleman]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101886.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

No Game for a Family

By Dick Meyer

Saturday, December 22, 2007; A17

I went to my last professional football game this month. My son and I braved frigid, remote FedEx Field to see our beloved Chicago Bears, the fallen Super Bowl champions, humiliated 24-16 by the struggling Washington Redskins. It wasn't the depth of our despair that will keep us away from football stadiums for good but the depravity of the fans.

I suppose depravity is a strong word. But what better describes drunken adult men, egged on by other grown beer-swillers, belly-shouting the most spectacular obscenities imaginable as they stand next to a 13-year-old boy? Every play was a competition to produce a more vile insult or a different suggestion about which Bear body part might be stuffed up which orifice. When the Redskins scored their first touchdown, four young women -- I'm guessing they were in high school -- turned around and did a little stripper's dance that made my son blush as I cringed. Even putting aside their ages, it was too cold to bare flesh.

Within 10 minutes of kickoff, I knew I had made a terrible mistake taking my son to the game.

The looming aggression and violence was more troubling than the foul language and drunken boorishness. Some of the men near us were enraged and barely in control of themselves. When Bears quarterback Rex Grossman went down with a knee injury, two obese drunks behind us bellowed that they hoped the [expletive] [expletive] would never walk again. They did this over and over, adding slurs and suggested tortures.

I had already pointed out to these gentlemen that there were kids around. They glared at me, furious. It was obvious to me that if I pursued it, there would be a fight or a screaming match.

My son wore a Bears jersey concealed under his layers of fleece and down. A man two rows in front of us who looked like Cpl. Klinger from "M*A*S*H" took it upon himself to needle my son every time something bad happened to the Bears, which happened a lot. He would turn and stare at him and wave goodbye in a threatening way. I know he was trying to be funny, ribbing us in good spirit. But when I asked him to stop, he just shook his head. The very nice man next to me, a season-ticket holder, told me that if I just waited until the second half, the guy would be too drunk to stand.

There simply was no code of conduct, no social superego, that discouraged this behavior, even around children. Worse, some people were there precisely to get drunk, angry, loud and vile. The idea that fans would have manners or courtesy in any form seems archaic and silly.

Americans have been worried for a decade about the social isolation known as "bowling alone." But if the social bonding generated by "watching together" is like the atmosphere at the Bears-Redskins game, it's understandable why many people prefer to watch alone.

There is nothing unique about Redskins fans in my experience. I took my son to a game at Chicago's field a few years ago, and it may have been worse, simply because it wasn't so cold out that day. I thought that experience might have been an anomaly, but the friends I have surveyed tell me it isn't. When I went to a Cleveland Browns game without my son, I wasn't as disturbed by the drunken meanness, but there was still plenty of drunken name-calling.

Professional football to a large degree is a gigantic beer-delivery mechanism. The club level of FedEx Field is set up to ingest beer. To watch football on television, you have to endure the same idiotic beer ads again and again. Judging from their content, these ads are not targeted at men but at oafs. The characters in today's beer commercials are boy-buffoons capable of little more than watching television and pouring down the suds. Gone are the athletes, outdoorsmen and debonair smoothies.

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[DButz65]

Stupid moron, all he had to do was post here and ask if taking his son to a NIGHT game was okay? But noooooooo. He would of found out more drunks attend night games than day games, for some odd reason

[aussieskin]

And what pray tell, makes this person think that the skins fans are the only ones who carry on like this, every team has fans both good and bad sober and drunk, sometimes we all have to be a little more forgiving than we would like, afterall If I was to attend soldier field would all the bears fans be well behaved and courtious, I dont thinks so, sounds like someone needs to start smelling the coffee.

[Chris0894]

***we can do without this kind of post***

edited by staff

[Area51]

LMFAO

This type of **** happens all the time at any teams' events. This guy is an idiot for thinking that fans of opposing teams were going to be welcomed with open arms, especially by drunks(Note: I am not saying what the Skins fans did was right but it happens all the time when you enter 'enimy territory').

[UVASKINSFAN]

Sounds like a country song. :violin:

[Kosher Ham]

When I go to games, I drink to get loud and fun, not to get drunk.

Seriously though, there are those people at every game. As fans in the stadium it's kind of our responsibility to reel these people in.

[bubba9497]

if the bears had won.....

[AHerald]

Oh, the irony of most of the responses to this article ...:doh:

[Sherlock Holmes]

HAHA, culture shock, I'll take him to a soccer game here in england involving my team, that'll really scare him:

[Major Harris]

Stupid moron, all he had to do was post here and ask if taking his son to a NIGHT game was okay? But noooooooo. He would of found out more drunks attend night games than day games, for some odd reason

well, he is a bears fan. kind of bound by the schedule and all. (assuming he's a dc guy and wanted to see his team at fedex)

it would be nice if people could get drunk and not act the fool. i do it. i know plenty of others that do. if you can't do it, don't drink so much before the game. you're giving those of us in control of ourselves that like to drink before a game a bad name. (not you as you, dbutz)

[Major Harris]

And what pray tell, makes this person think that the skins fans are the only ones who carry on like this, every team has fans both good and bad sober and drunk, sometimes we all have to be a little more forgiving than we would like, afterall If I was to attend soldier field would all the bears fans be well behaved and courtious, I dont thinks so, sounds like someone needs to start smelling the coffee.

i didn't look hard for this:

There is nothing unique about Redskins fans in my experience. I took my son to a game at Chicago's field a few years ago, and it may have been worse, simply because it wasn't so cold out that day. I thought that experience might have been an anomaly, but the friends I have surveyed tell me it isn't. When I went to a Cleveland Browns game without my son, I wasn't as disturbed by the drunken meanness, but there was still plenty of drunken name-calling

[[[ghost]]]

Apparently, we're the only ones to say nonsense during games.

Don't lie- how many times have you guys said stupid/embarrassing things DURING a game that seemed like you meant it, but you knew you didn't?

I'll regularly find myself saying something like "Break that guys neck." "End his career!" or "How can you call pass interference! He was only tackling him a little early!"

If you had asked me then, I would have said I meant it. But I don't really. Football just brings out the beasts in us.

[Blondie]

well, he is a bears fan. kind of bound by the schedule and all. (assuming he's a dc guy and wanted to see his team at fedex)

it would be nice if people could get drunk and not act the fool. i do it. i know plenty of others that do. if you can't do it, don't drink so much before the game. you're giving those of us in control of ourselves that like to drink before a game a bad name. (not you as you, dbutz)

:applause: :applause:

[British Skin]

In a few years time me and my family are planing to tour America for a month and I am definately going to a Redskins game. The only problem now is after reading this I don't think it will be a good idea to take the family to the game.

Or well I will just have to go by myself to the game and sit there getting drunk making some noise while the wife will have to take the kids shopping for the day.

Never mind, life can be hard at times.

[bikie]

HAHA, culture shock, I'll take him to a soccer game here in england involving my team, that'll really scare him:

HAHAHAHAHAH... if there was one thing I'd take from soccer (besides some of the soccer wives) it would be the chants... hilarious...

[[[ghost]]]

If you're from England, aren't rowdy fans the norm there? That may have been ignorant and stereotypical, but isn't England known for their obsessive fans?

[andyburd]

And what pray tell, makes this person think that the skins fans are the only ones who carry on like this, every team has fans both good and bad sober and drunk, sometimes we all have to be a little more forgiving than we would like, afterall If I was to attend soldier field would all the bears fans be well behaved and courtious, I dont thinks so, sounds like someone needs to start smelling the coffee.

He did say that the Chicago fans were just as bad. Hey look, I have been going to games for 40 years, he is not that far off at all. I have had to hold back many times for Skins fans that wanted a piece of me.

We all know that when you go to a night game, that the fans have all day to get all tanked up, it is everywhere, at every stadium

[Sherlock Holmes]

]']If you're from England' date=' aren't rowdy fans the norm there? That may have been ignorant and stereotypical, but isn't England known for their obsessive fans?[/quote']

Unfortunately thats the case. Crowd seggregation, no bottled beer inside the ground etc are examples of the evidence of this. Still, it makes for one hell of an atmosphere.

[#98QBKiller]

:laugh:

Probably. I had a filthy mouth when I was 13 and I was definitely screaming obscenities at the Redskins on TV back then, maybe not "**** this **** that" but I would get pissed and scream.

If you take your kid to a football game you have to expect people to be rowdy. You shouldn't have to expect people to be classless, but people are going to hoot and hollar, it's part of the game.

[worstSeat]

When I go to games, I drink to get loud and fun, not to get drunk.

Seriously though, there are those people at every game. As fans in the stadium it's kind of our responsibility to reel these people in.

Good second point there. You'd hope the season ticket holder in the story would have told the guy to calm down and quit with the pointing. After all, the only reason the guy had a seat was that a season ticket holder scalped the tickets. It is our fault that unruly people are at the game, especially when those people are us.

And though I've got to agree that a visiting fan going to a night game with a kid isn't the best idea, some teams do have family areas that cut down on that sort of thing. The Skins should have one too. It's a shame making so much dough off of beer remains such a priority for NFL owners.

[Goaldeje]

Whew, it's a good thing I checked around and all 13 year olds are just like that! Wow, no difference there. I assume you think all 30 year olds (like me) are stuffy family men as well? And apparently 19 year old girls are whores?

This is exactly why I will never bring my family to a Redskins game, despite their requests.

Those of you playing the "well, he should have known better card", well, that's not really the point, now is it?

[mrhetzler]

Am I on the right website? These responses sound like Philly fans. "What do you expect?" "Enemy territory?".

Come on.

By the way, he said, "Redskins fans are not unique.." He said he had similar experiences in Chicago and Cleveland. Did you guys READ the article, or just start posting?

[robotfire]

I was really bothered by the reactions when Rex went down, too. Never wish anything bad for another team's health, ESPECIALLY when their backup is the better player.

[Tastes Like Chicken]

If this guy thought the club level was bad, he should sit up in the 400s where I sit. :laugh:

Is this really a new phenomenon? I remember my first games at RFK, almost 25 years ago. My dad warned me about drunks and adult language, which I was not to repeat (at least around my mother :laugh: ) Distinctly recall the smell of whiskey and beer, cigars and the sounds of F bombs and ill-wishes towards the opposing team's health. It was like a rite of passage into the man's world.

I'm not saying the boorish behavior is right; it is what it is, and it's at the games so you have to be aware before you bring a little kid to the game.