A California jury ruled last week that the Los Angeles Dodgers were negligent in their actions and thus partially responsible for the brutal attack on Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan who was severely beaten and left for dead outside Dodger Stadium on Opening Day in 2011. The decision, which states in part that the Dodgers failed to provide adequate security, shines a light on a rather unpleasant truth facing sports franchises around the country: fan violence is a serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
“It’s out of control,” said Bryan’s mother, Ann Stow, in an interview with Bernard Goldberg on HBO’s Real Sports back in 2012. And if you think this is the overly-emotional reaction of a mother who was put in the unenviable position of watching her son spend two years in the hospital before being released with a permanent disability that now requires around-the-clock medical care and up to six hours a day of physical therapy: you’re wrong.
Witness the June 2013 incident at Camden Yards in Baltimore. When 25-year old Matt Fortese proudly sported his New York Yankees cap amidst the Orioles faithful at a game he was attending with his girlfriend, two fans repeatedly heckled him, threw beer on him, and later assaulted him, leaving Fortese with severe head trauma and a fractured skull.
Meanwhile in the NFL, numerous violent, sometimes fatal, incidents were reported in stadiums across the U.S. in a three-week window from Thanksgiving to mid-December this past year. It all started after the Thanksgiving day game between the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys, when a Cowboys fan was beaten unconscious by four Raiders fans just outside AT&T Stadium in Arlington. A week later in Kansas City, a man was found dead in the parking lot outside Arrowhead Stadium after an altercation following a Chiefs/Broncos game. Less than two weeks after that, three fans were stabbed outside Sports Authority Field in Denver during a melee that broke out after the Broncos’ loss to the San Diego Chargers.
In an age where seemingly everything ends up on the internet, one need look no further than YouTube to find countless examples of fan-on-fan violence. Something as simple as a trip to the concessions stand could be a risky proposition for you and yours if you happen to run into a group of clowns like these Blazers/Lakers fans taking swings and hurling obscenities at one another. And be sure to keep your head on a swivel on the way out of the stadium as well, as you might end up in the midst of another scrum like the one in San Antonio that immediately followed a Spurs victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in April of last year.
Even female fans manage to get into the act. Sometimes they’re merely the victims, as was the case with a woman who was knocked unconscious trying to break up a fight between A’s and Giants fans outside AT&T Park last month. Other times they’re mixing it up with each other, as was the case at NBA contests in Houston and Utah. And then there was the female fan who bum rushed a male New York Jets fan following a Jets/Patriots matchup and took a right hook to the head as a result.
Worst of all? The true extent of the problem may be unknown due to the confidentiality of certain stadium violence statistics, particularly in the National Football League. In an eye-opening 2013 story for KIRO-TV in Seattle, investigative reporter Chris Halsne found that crimes taking place inside many NFL stadiums are being “grossly underreported.” In his investigation, which covered roughly 10,000 incidents over a two and a half year period, Halsne found hundreds of felony offenses being committed at NFL games, including rape, kidnapping, lynching, child sexual abuse, and aggravated assault of police officers. Unfortunately, these crimes may only represent the tip of the iceberg.
“The NFL does not require teams to use police, even for violent felony crimes, so many don’t,” Halsne reported. And while each incident at NFL stadiums, whether police were involved or not, must be logged and reported to the league following each home game, those reports are kept confidential.
Many teams are taking note of the increasingly volatile atmosphere present at professional sporting events. Undercover police officers dressed as the opposing team’s fans have been placed in the stands at numerous stadiums to help identify belligerent fan behavior. Both of the NFL’s conference championship game hosts, Seattle and Denver, placed geographic limitations on the purchase of game tickets to try to keep opposing fans out and prevent violent clashes before and after the games.
While these efforts are noble, more needs to be done. Whether it’s increasing security, enacting a zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior, or heaven forbid, decreasing the availability of alcohol at games, the time has come for franchises to take a stand against violence at sporting events. The sad truth of the matter? The lives of their fans may very well depend on it.
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Main Photo via KTLA
