THANKS FOR NOT TAKING IT PERSONALLY
OK. It appears that my recent column in three local newspapers has gone viral and I could be on my way to becoming this week’s Most Hated Man in America.
Here’s some of what I wrote followed by some comments on the reaction:
Maybe it’s time for sports fans to grow up.
As I’m writing this, Bryan Stow, (Unfortunately I referred to him as Snow in my column and apologize for that stupid mistake.) A 42 year-old paramedic with two kids from Sacramento is lying comatose in a Los Angeles hospital with a fractured skull and serious brain injuries.
Part of his skull had to be removed in order to allow for the swelling of his brain.
Stow went to the Los Angeles Dodgers home opener on April 1st wearing a San Francisco Giants jersey. That was obviously too much for two twenty-something guys wearing Dodger blue to handle. Witnesses say that, after the game, they came up on Stow from behind in the parking lot, knocked him down and kicked him as they spewed expletives about the San Francisco Giants.
It’s probably safe to say that the two “Dodgers” were high on something or things, but somewhere in their sick, juvenile minds, they probably thought that that they were doing their duty as Dodger fans.
They were protecting Dodger turf.
Just before he was beaten within an inch of his life, Stow texted some friends and said that he was scared “inside the stadium.”
(Here’s where I started treading in dangerous territory.)
Maybe somevbody can ask Stow, if he ever comes out of his coma, why he thought it was a good idea to wear Giants gear to a Dodgers’ home opener when there was a history of out of control drunkeness and arrests at that event going back several years.
(For that sentence, I am being accused of “blaming” Stow and saying that he had it coming. Two of the more popular analogies are the one about a woman who’s wearing a short skirt “asking” to be raped and the the one about the provocatively dressed rape victim who ”had it coming.” To say that Stow’s decision to wear the Giants jersey resulted in his beating is not the same as blaming him or saying that he had it coming. It is, however questioning the wisdom of ANYBODY wearing Giants gear to Dodgers Stadium on opening day, when fans have been drinking and tailgating all day. A day or two earlier, I had interviewed a reporter for the Los Angeles Times on my internet radio show and he spent several minutes talking about how the crowds had changed –for the worse– at Dodger Stadium over the years.
Especially in the cheaper seats, where I believed Stow had been sitting. Nowhere did I imply that Stow deserved what happened to him. I thought that the difference between DESERVING a consequence and unwittingly contributing to one was implicit. Posters to this blog and blogggers around the country ripped me for saying that Stow “deserved it” or “was asking for it.” I was simply asking if, after the fact, and knowing the recent problems at Dodgers Stadium, Stow will be regretting or second guessing his decision to wear the jersey. It doesn’t matter how many times someone says that I said that he deserved it, it doesn’t make it so. I know it makes for a better story if there’s a guy out there telling a comatose father of two that he deserves to be in a coma, but it wasn’t written in this column,)
I’ve also been trashed for writing “if he ever comes out of a coma” . That was not an attempt to be flippant. It was my (possibly inartful) way of pointing out how serious his injuries were.
Then I wrote:
“Remember when it was the kids who were wearing the team jerseys to games? It was a common sight to see an adult male coming through the turnstile dressed as a regular human being with a kid dressed in a “real” jersey holding his hand.
Cute.
Are the 42 year -olds, (Some took this as a shot at Stow specifically –it was not meant to be.) who find it necessary to wear their replica jerseys to a road game, those kids who are now fathers who haven’t grown up? (It might not have been seen as insensitive if I had written 40-something instead of 42–Stow’s age.)
( Here is where I comment on the adult jersey phenomenon because I think the fans’ lack of perspective has contributed to the escalating violence at games –especially NFL games.)
“Are there really 40-something men who think that wearing the jersey makes them part of the team? It was cute when a 10 year-old kid got that feeling by showing up at Three Rivers Stadium in a Pirates jersey, but when did little boys stop growing out of that?
Here’s a tip for you if you actually think that wearing your team’s jersey makes you a part of the team:
It doesn’t.”
(My point here is that this feeling of being part of the team –reinforced by sitting in a crowd of people all wearing the same jersey –is a possible contributor to over the top behavior and/or violence.)
“The team is those guys down on the field, ice or court who are, you know, actually playing the games. They like the noise that you make as a group and thety love playing in front of you, but, it you’re an adult and you approach them in a replica game jersey with their name on it and your face is painted, you scare them.
If you don’t put that jersey on in the locker room with them and have your own name on the jersey, you’re not one of them.”
“Let’s review: If you’re sitting in the stands, you’re a spectator — a fan.. If you’re down on the field, you’re part of the team.” (Therefore there’s no need to feel like you’re taking one for the team or protecting your turf by starting a fight with someone in the visiting team’s jersey.)
“Obviously, not every fan who wears his team’s jersey to a game is looking for someone from the “enemy” to beat up, but maybe somebody should do a psychological study to find out if all of those game jerseys have contributed to the mob mentality that seems to exist in the stands these days.”
“There’s an outside chance that alcohol plays a role, but, apparently, the teams have ruled that out and continue to sell nine dollar beers.” (I’ve been saying for years that, until the teams at least consider eliminating alcohol from the scene, which would put an end to 99% of the problems, they can’t be taken seriously when they talk about improving fan behavior.)
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I don’t apologize for the column but I do apologize to the Stow family if this nonsense has reached them and in any way added to their pain. I don’t, for one second, blame Brian Stow for the beating he took. I do blame the ever increasing out of control, out of perspective behavior by fans, too many of whom are no longer satisfied with going to their stadiums and cheering for their teams. And I sure as hell don’t think –as some hysterical posters have claimed –that Bryan “had it coming.”
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Date: April 13, 2011
Categories: Sports
