The Slow Decline of FedEx. Dangerous Thug Fans?

[SonnyandSam]

Unfortunately, this happens all too often at sporting events all over this country and the world. Some of the worst violence occurs at soccer events overseas. Other NFL stadiums have the same problem. FedEx is not the only one. Part of the problem are the fans; but a big part of it is the money connection between the NFL and the beer industry.

I see fights in or near my section at virtually every game. Contrary to some of the posts in this thread, I always see the PG County police involved and dragging these morons out. It is important for fans to report the fights. It is like crime in your neighborhood, we have to take the responsibility to report the fights. The NFL and the Redskins have been promoting the use of using text messaging to report such incidents. You can't monitor 85,000 people all the time.

The encouragement of tailgating which many of us handle responsibly, is a major cause of these fights IMHO. Guys show up at the stadium drunk off their ass before the game even begins. The Skins should take greater steps to cutting off fans who are too drunk. They do stop serving alcohol at the end of the third period. But quite frankly, it is damn hard to tell how drunk a guy is while sitting in his seat. It might be easier on the concourse or at the bars, but inside the stadium it is not as easy as some would think.

I attend and watch all Redskins games sober because I have a three hour drive home after the game. I enjoy the game (when we win) just fine.

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

I'm laughing at the people saying to ban alcohol at football games. That's just hilarious. Will never happen. I'm of the crowd that says that if you have young children and/or cannot handle the language and behavior then simply don't go. It is what it is and you aren't going to control 90,000 drunk ass idiots without a massive riot team.

[hail2skins]

I was so stunned by the first video that I couldn't watch the others.

Not by the fight, but halfway through you can hear Mark Kessler indicate that Albert Haynesworth was involved in a play.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

You can't monitor 85,000 people all the time.

You can if you have your stadium set up right with CCTV covering all angles, and the feeds leading straight back to a police control room that can zoom in on any individual in any area of the stadium and have a picture to hand instantly. Doing just that, allied to better trained stewarding would allow you to comfortably keep on top of ANY incident even in a crowd of that magnitude.

Hail.

[SonnyandSam]

American sports could do a lot worse than take from their English counterparts.

In the very top level of English soccer, which the NFL is, you can't even sneeze in a stadium now without your on multiple cameras recording it. Anyone fighting like on the videos in the OP would find the cops on them in seconds, resulting 9 times out of 10 in either ejection from the stadium, or worse their ass' brought up on charges. And the club would ban their ass, maybe for life depending on the severity, with season tickets cancelled on the spot. And alcohol within view of the playing area is a blanket ban. Clubs sell beer before and at half time under the stands, but you've not a prayer in hell of taking it back to your seat.

Don't get me wrong, trouble still occurs away from the stadium, and if you want it you can still find it. But there's minimal incidents within stadiums today. Why the Redskins or any other NFL team continue to allow this behaviour is totally beyond me. It's seriously not hard to eradicate it.

And the fighting between your own just staggers me. That's the most asinine, ridiculous form of violence I've seen. I'll hold my hand up and say I've been involved when fightings broken out going back to my youth at English soccer games. If you travelled away from home (road games) in the '70's and '80's it was unavoidable. But never did we turn on our own fans. That's the most ass backward thing in that context I can imagine.

Hail.

Let's be fair...if what you say IS the case now.....it is only because the soccer hooligans started riots by the dozens and hundreds of people at soccer matches. That kind of police control is because of what transpired in the past. Fortunately, it has never gotten near that bad here in the States for any sporting event. I'm not sure I want armed police ringing each section. Not sure I would feel safer or not.

One time I went to a beach resort in Mexico. The beach was being patrolled by military with machine guns. Am I safe? Or am I in danger? There must be a reason for all that military to be patrolling a beach resort....

Every fight I have seen in the stadium has always resorted to those people being removed, and presumably escorted out of the stadium since they never returned.

And frankly, I have seen more fighting between Redskins fans than I have between Redskins fans and visiting team fans in my 9 years at FedEx.

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

You can if you have your stadium set up right with CCTV covering all angles, and the feeds leading straight back to a police control room that can zoom in on any individual in any area of the stadium and have a picture to hand instantly. Doing just that, allied to better trained stewarding would allow you to comfortably keep on top of ANY incident even in a crowd of that magnitude.

Hail.

Still.... It's not conflict prevention. All things considered that's flat out impossible in my opinion. What you're talking about will only resolve these things a little sooner... Some get out of hand pretty quickly and the damage will still end up being done before the authorities arrive

[jservs7]

I could have sworn that the dude with the grey hair to the left in this video was Jim Zorn.

[SonnyandSam]

You can if you have your stadium set up right with CCTV covering all angles, and the feeds leading straight back to a police control room that can zoom in on any individual in any area of the stadium and have a picture to hand instantly. Doing just that, allied to better trained stewarding would allow you to comfortably keep on top of ANY incident even in a crowd of that magnitude.

Hail.

Just what we need....Big Brother watching every move we make. Not the kind of life I want here in the US. And I'm the kind of guy that follows the law and have never ever been in trouble with the law.

[shuler74]

Its sad because I remember my dad taking me to rfk and I had a great time, bu no way would I take my son to a game unless were in a suite too many douchebags that cant handle their alcohol

[SonnyandSam]

Let's also be clear about the violence we are talking about. It is almost always two people shoving each other; sometimes fists are thrown. Seldom does it become a brawl of affect others other than distracting people from watching the game. It's two drunks who can't behave themselves socially. These types of guys are usually involved with alcohol induced fighting in other locations also. The root cause remains the intoxication.

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

That's bull****. I know plenty of people that attend Redskins games that will beat the **** out of someone for talking **** stone cold sober. It doesn't help, but it isn't the root cause. Being an aggressive natured jerk is.

[Phixius]

I'm laughing at the people saying to ban alcohol at football games. That's just hilarious. Will never happen. I'm of the crowd that says that if you have young children and/or cannot handle the language and behavior then simply don't go.

I'm of the crowd that says, if you plan on getting drunk and not caring about the game itself, then don't go. Waste of a ticket if you ask me to someone that actually wants to experience watching an NFL game in person but it's in the hands of an idiot.

[RonArtest15]

FedEx is one of the worst fan experiences ANYONE can have....I hate going to games because of the logistical parking nightmare and idiotic fans.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

A common held misconception about soccer 'hooliganism' in England back in the day is that everyone was involved. They only fought in the main with like minded boneheads. Innocent people we're rarely either set upon or dragged into it. There were exceptions of course. Some clubs fans had no standards. But in the main trouble was between those who wanted it, and often away from stadiums.

Your totally right that the policing methods got better down to that fact SandS, but outside of certain games on continental Europe, I've never seen an armed policeman at an English soccer game. And the police presence within stadiums, in the main, is often low key, with stewards taking care of a lot of crowd control. The police are there in numbers if anything did erupt, but it's not in your face policing inside stadiums. Again, closed circuit TV has taken care of that. You can get away with very little now within a top level English soccer stadium.

Hail.

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

My bet is a lot of these people care about the game... a whole lot... Regardless of their heathen behavior

I'm of the crowd that says, if you plan on getting drunk and not caring about the game itself, then don't go. Waste of a ticket if you ask me to someone that actually wants to experience watching an NFL game in person but it's in the hands of an idiot.

[skinfan2k]

I'm of the crowd that says, if you plan on getting drunk and not caring about the game itself, then don't go. Waste of a ticket if you ask me to someone that actually wants to experience watching an NFL game in person but it's in the hands of an idiot.

yup. people think drinking gives them a right to act dumb. well you can drink and still have fun and not make it like a bar scene. you are there to watch a game!

[RFK Lives]

This happens in every NFL stadium throughout the country. If you searched hard enough, I guarantee you will find multiple videos of fights in every stadium. Its just how it is in the NFL these days. Not defending it, but it is what it is. It not a place to take the kids unless your lucky enough to have tickets in a suite. Most of the time the club level is ok too.

Agree that this happens at a lot of stadiums but it is far rarer in a place like Arrowhead than say FedEx or Oakland Alameda.

I know Roger Goodell has his hands full but I think they need to look seriously at safety at the stadium. Really? You cannot take your kids unless you are in the club level or suite? They may have to attack it at the tailgate which nobody, myself included, would like but I can see it coming. I was surprised by the lot opening early for some games last year.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Still.... It's not conflict prevention. All things considered that's flat out impossible in my opinion. What you're talking about will only resolve these things a little sooner... Some get out of hand pretty quickly and the damage will still end up being done before the authorities arrive

'K, take that as happening. The key difference to now is you have the trouble maker on camera clearly fighting or doing whatever. He's no comeback. So you then take your own action, regardless of whatever the authorities do, and ban his ass'. The more people get banned from FedEx for fighting, the sooner others will start to think twice.

Hail.

[Phixius]

My bet is a lot of these people care about the game... a whole lot... Regardless of their heathen behavior

Yeah.....until halftime.

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

I guess I am just failing to see the correlation between "being there to watch the game" and ending up involved in a fight. I'd like to think that a lot of these people didn't wake up in the morning and say hey I am going to **** someone up at the Skins game today. I am certain a lot of these people go to the game with the intentions of watching the game. And we don't know the context of these situations either because I will tell you... if I am at a game, drunk or not and you mess with me, my friends, or my family there will most likely be some stuff.

[RFK Lives]

'K, take that as happening. The key difference to now is you have the trouble maker on camera clearly fighting or doing whatever. He's no comeback. So you then take your own action, regardless of whatever the authorities do, and ban his ass'. The more people get banned from FedEx for fighting, the sooner others will start to think twice.

Hail.

Agree witht this. A stronger deterrent. BUT, needs to be a pretty good system, I would hate to see people that get roped in by accident or falsely accused get banned, seen it happen at some concerts.

[SonnyandSam]

A common held misconception about soccer 'hooligans' in England back in the day is that, everyone was involved. They only fought in the main with like minded boneheads. Innocent people we're rarely either set upon or dragged into it. There were exceptions of course. Some clubs fans had no standards. But in the main trouble was between those who wanted it, and often away from stadiums.

Your totally right that the policing methods got better down to that fact SandS, but outside of certain games on continental Europe, I've never seen an armed policeman at an English soccer game. And the police presence within stadiums, in the main, is often low key, with stewards taking care of a lot of crowd control. The police are there in numbers if anything did erupt, but it's not in your face policing inside stadiums. Again, closed circuit TV has taken care of that. You can get away with very little now within a top level English soccer stadium.

Hail.

But closed circuit TV is not going to stop the fights. Most of the time, the cops are there to arrest and/or remove the idiots. Fans near the fights are pretty quick to notify the usher or report it by text or phone. I still don't think the response by the police at FedEx is all that bad. Fights go one no more than a couple minutes at most before the Police arrive to take care of it.

The issue is how do you prevent it. The only way to minimize it is do stop the alcohol. And I don't see that happening.

And Old Dominion....you are fooling yourself if you think the alcohol is not the primary reason that fights break out. Yes, there are sober jerks; but quite frankly most jerks are also the same guys getting plastered, and who think getting drunk gives them an excuse to act like an *******.

[Phixius]

I guess I am just failing to see the correlation between "being there to watch the game" and ending up involved in a fight. I'd like to think that a lot of these people didn't wake up in the morning and say hey I am going to **** someone up at the Skins game today. I am certain a lot of these people go to the game with the intentions of watching the game. And we don't know the context of these situations either because I will tell you... if I am at a game, drunk or not and you mess with me, my friends, or my family there will most likely be some stuff.

I'm sure people wake up in the morning and say "hey I am going to get wasted today at the Skins game today. You know what that mean, I take no responsibility for my actions and I get to ruin everyone else experience....YEAH!!!...then I'll pass out and won't remember a thing........sounds like a plan".

and what would you consider someone messing with you?, because they wearing a opposing team jersey and running their mouths or they drunk themselves?

in that case, you should take your own advice and don't go to the game if you can't handle the behavior because "it is what it is". (/sarcasm)

[Bang]

I was so stunned by the first video that I couldn't watch the others.

Not by the fight, but halfway through you can hear Mark Kessler indicate that Albert Haynesworth was involved in a play.

Best line of the week!!!

~Bang

[Old Dominion Monarch 06]

I guess you're right I am fooling myself. I get hammered-ass drunk at every game I go to and have never had any problems. except the one time I knocked over some beers into the carpet in the suite after devin thomas' first TD against NY. Probably shouldn't haven been hanging out the suite window high-fiving people. I knew something was wrong from the get-go when I was the only one in there without a suit on. Anyways...see y'all at fedex! Let's have some beeeeeeeeeeersssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss collleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeege

Hahaha right because I am the one that's up in arms about the behavior of people that aren't me. Na i'll pass, see you there. Most likely drunk. Sorry in advance.