Rowdy Fans Riot After College Football Games

Fox News ^ | Sunday, November 24, 2002 | AP

[Sparta]

COLUMBUS, Ohio

[discostu]

This crap has got to stop. Sports riots need to become a thing of the past. A few years ago it was proven that students at one college were PLANNING a riot (including soaking things in gasoline before the game even started). Frankly whatever it takes to stop this crap should simply be done, this behavior is dangerous, has resulted in injuries and will eventually result in death, cops shouldn't be using peperspray they should be matching lethal force with lethal force. Pop a couple of these morons, maybe the rest will think of something better to do with their time.

[jimtorr]

Agreed. When home fans act like British soccer hooligans, the home team should forfeit the game. If the home team lost, they should forfeit the next game.

That goes for the real pros and college pros alike.

[discostu]

What's wrong with tagging your house, people have been graphitizing private property for years?!

It's vandalism, that's what's wrong with it.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Thanks, I believe the Princeton game you mentioned was the one I had heard about and was referring to.

[billbears]

I see the possibilities for injuries there but I see the possibility for even more injuries in just running out on the field. And I'd say there's even less chance of stopping that.

[VOA]

We aer becoming a third-world country.

At least in some parts.

I am always amazed at the "Lord Of The Flys" behaviour after athletic contests.

I don't know if I EVER saw such a thing while I was growing up in Oklahoma.
There might have been cross words and verbal threats after an OU-OSU, OU-Nebraska,
OSU-Nebraka football game...but starting fires, breaking windows and mayhem...
never.

I'll never forget seeing footage of the riot in the Westwood area on one of the
FOX Police Vidoes show. UCLA wins a basketball championship...hey, let's riot!

I guess I'm just a small-town naive virgin on this topic...I just don't get it.

But as I said, it must be the cultures in some parts of the country.
My understanding is that reporterette Connie Chung got "disinvited" and taken off the
job when she came to Oklahoma City following the Federal Building bombing...
and her big comment after viewing the devastation was "Why aren't these people rioting?".

[ewing]

Ohio St. fans crowd the field and climb the goal posts after completing a perfect 13-0 regular season and clinching a birth in the Fiesta Bowl National Championship game before a record crowd of 105,000 in attendance at Columbus, Ohio.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Police fired tear gas and wooden pellets to break up rioting by college football fans who set fire to cars, threw bottles and burned furniture in the streets early Sunday in celebration of Ohio State University's victory over rival Michigan.

"Celebrate" now. Miami or Oklahoma awaits, and there will be no "celebration" after that game. Notice there are never riots after FSU-UF?

Could FSU have played any worse against NC State? I'm a long, long, long time 'Nole backer, and I can't remember off the top of my head ever seeing a game in which FSU looked like it cared less. And this year was supposed to bear the fruit of our "rebuilding" year last year. Beh.

[E Rocc]

Naw, that's excessive. Do what the pros do, don't let anyone on the field....tradition or not.

-Eric

[discostu]

Shouldn't be too hard to stop at all. When was the last time you saw a bunch of regular citizens run out onto the field after a pro-game? Seattle played 2 years in a college stadium, the Bears are playing in one right now, the Steelers shared 3-River with a college team forever, same with the Cardinals. If the pros can keep the fans off the field, often the EXACT SAME stadiums, there's no reason the colleges can't. That would be a big step to stopping this crap, but college sports riots aren't alway at the stadium, so that's just the beginning.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Scenes from Ohio:

Ya know what, in a way I was looking forward to Ohio State playing in the mythical national championship game. It was nice to see a new team in the mix for a change, a team that had risen above so much past disappointment, fans who had waited a long time finally getting a taste of the ultimate, a conference that had been through a down spell now moving back to the top. But this is disgusting. No, these thugs don't represent the vast majority of good Buckeye fans, but neither is this behavior anything new for Columbus. Too much looking the other way. If the administration had class, they would forfeit the victory to send a strong message to any thug thinking of ever pulling this crap again. But that won't happen, this is the U. that fired John Cooper only because he lost, not because he ran a program rife with abuses. No class. So to hell with OSU(and Miami, and every other program that looks the other way.)

[billbears]

Look I know it's vandalism. I know it's wrong to some extent. But it happens and it will continue to happen no matter what rules are put into place. Either let it happen (considering it happens once a year at most at most colleges) or set up police around the stadium and get face recognition software for the cameras. Let's see a couple of grand for new goalposts once a year(probably already taken into account at most major colleges in their athletic budgets) or a couple of million dollars a year in extra security and new technology to catch these 'criminals'. What do you think most colleges will do?

[ewing]

Ohio State partisans pull sod from the stadium field after the Buckeyes defeated Michigan 14-9 on an intercepted forward pass at the goal line with :01 second on the clock, preserving an undefeated campaign.

The enthusiastic fans (more like vandals-ed.) said they planned to sell the grass on the internet.

[billbears]

Granted I can see your point considering it has gone past just goalposts (overturned cars, pulling up grass?!?) but the original intent in tearing down the goalposts was not so mean spirited

[Diddle E. Squat]

From ESPN:

In Columbus, Ohio, about 45 people were arrested when crowds celebrating No. 2 Ohio State's victory over Michigan set fires and damaged cars early Sunday near campus.

Police spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio didn't know how many people were injured. She said the arrests were for carrying open containers of alcohol, rioting, resisting arrest or setting the fires.

Celebrations began Saturday afternoon, after Ohio State edged Michigan 14-9 to complete a 13-0 regular season. The Buckeyes next will play in the BCS national championship game at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3.

Police at Ohio Stadium used pepper spray to subdue fans who swarmed the field and pushed toward a goal post.

A little after midnight, police used tear gas and pellets to disperse a crowd of several hundred east of Ohio State's campus.

At one point, nine cars were piled together and burning, Mercurio said. Disturbances continued in portions of a 10-block area for several hours.

"Once we'd get one street under control, the crowds would move to one or two others and things would break out again,'' she said.

Streets were mostly empty near campus Sunday morning, with a few traffic barricades at some intersections and some uprooted park benches.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Never overlook the lessons offered by history:

Caligula decided that a sterner show of force was necessary. Displeased with their taxes, the crowd one day shouted their troubles to him in between races. Rather than hear them out, or even ignore them, Caligula sent out hefty chunks of the military into the crowd with orders to detain any shouting persons. He had them brought to the center of the circus, halted all racing activity, and summarily executed each one so that the bulk of Rome could see he wasn't fooling around.

[discostu]

That's a great attitude, swap out the word "rape" for "tearing down the goal post" and you see why it's a rediculous attitude. It's the one bad apple scenario, back in the "good ol' days" people only rarely tore down the goal post and that was the end of the anti-social post game behavior. Now it's happening more and more often, with more and more people getting hurt, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. The fans have no longer earned the right to go out on the field after the game, they can't be trusted. I'm sure it's a small percentage of the fans, but they've ruined it for everybody else.

Wait until somebody realizes that the current tort situation makes the colleges liable for whatever injuries are incurred tearing down the goal posts (I know it's stupid, but the college is in charge of the field, similar cases have proved ruinous to the rightful owner in many suits). Then the choice for the colleges become clear. Of course this isn't a discussion of what they will do, it's a discussion of what they SHOULD do. Unfortunately they won't do that until somebody sues the crap out of them.

[ewing]

[discostu]

The original intent of income taxes was to keep the nation unified (pay for the Civil War). Doesn't mean they're any good now. Same thing with the on-field post game celebration. I think it's really cool, or at least it used to be, but times have changed and the type of people charging onto the field now probably shouldn't have been allowed to attend in the first place. Time for the tradition to end, let the situation cool out for a couple years and see how the fans are behaving then.