Rowdy Fans Riot After College Football Games

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

[Sparta]

COLUMBUS, Ohio

[RWG]

And the ones responsible are the extremist left wing professors who can't teach $30,000 a year students how to behave.

[TopQuark]

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

Not at all! You and other "small-town" folk is what always distinguished this country in terms of civilized behavior. That's what many Europeans don't get and look at how high teh culture reaches. The French, for instance, measure their culture by the writers, artists, and philosophers it has produced.

But that is just one measure of a culture. Just as human spirit, a culture may (and should) be measured not only by how high it rises but also how low it falls when it debases itself. When you looked not to "high culture" but to small-town folk, this country has always stood out in terms of its civility. The most simple people, who have not even traveled to big cities and have not partaken of the sophistry, have been for the most part well-mannered and gracious. I am far from the first to say so so strongly. Most famously, this has been done by de Tocqueville (yes, Virginia, there are open-minded Frenchmen), to wit: "America is great becasue of the basic goodness of its people. And it will cease to be great if its people cease to be good."

You have my respect and, I believe, should be proud of your values. I am sorry to disagree on one minor point: the deterioration of civility is not limited to some parts of the country. It is widespread, although it well may be that the Midwesteners hold off longer.

Regards, TQ.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Of course it is excessive, that is the point. The mob mentality suggests that if we all run on the field, there is a good chance that I wont get caught. So I may then think it to be worth the risk. But if doing so causes my team to forfeit a win and a rare shot at the championship(the ultimate goal each fan holds most dear), then all of a sudden the risks are too high.

This equation holds true during the game, it is why you never see DURING a game a mob of fans rush the field even after a series of horrendous calls. They don't want to cost their team. So logically the most effective deterrent is to extend the risk of "costing the team" to beyond the game.

[ewing]

North Carolina St. fans work on a goal post at Carter Finley Stadium in Raliegh, North Carolina after the Wolfpack upset No. 14 nationally ranked Florida State 17-7.

Three people were taken to Rex Hospital with injuries and pepper spray was used to keep the goalposts inside the stadium.

[TopQuark]

And the ones responsible are the extremist left wing professors who can't teach $30,000 a year students how to behave. Not at all: the ones responsible are the parents who are proud to be post-Christian, who cohabit rather than get married, who swear at the dinner table and patronize "movies" full of violence and raw sex.

Morals and values are taught in the home. In the western tradition, the universities had a very small responsibility: given that the students leave home for school at the age when they are, although already knowing right from wrong, still young and vulnerable, the universities had the responsibility not to contribute to decay, to maintain that which has been learned in the home and the church.

You remark underscors the problem: you not only fail to have an answer --- you do not even look in the right direction.

GO to church or sinagougue of your choice. Understand this difference before you yourself have children, then raise them well before they go to college.

[socal_parrot]

At least in some parts

Looks like the riots covered all areas of the compass and points in between.

I can't believe fans at Cal actually rioting over a victory. I would think winning in Berkeley would be so un-PC.

[VOA]

I am sorry to disagree on one minor point: the deterioration of civility is not
limited to some parts of the country. It is widespread, although it well may be that
the Midwesteners hold off longer.

Not a problem...and I wasn't trying to "santify" "flyover country".

There was a football riot in Manhattan, Kansas maybe 10-15 years ago.
This was when the hometown Kansas State U. Wildcats beat the in-state rivals
Kansas University.
A friend in graduate school said that he'd never forget a girl screaming when she
saw her Volkswagen being turned over and set on fire...by "happy" KSU fans.

I guess I must have just imbibed too much morality at Sunday School or from some of the more
virtuous things in popular culture.

As I say (in a quip) when I'm occassionally tempted to take the quick, pragmatic and wrong
way out of situations...
"Some day I've got to find a lawyer who'll help me sue my parents for inculcating me
with this bothersone conscience."

[TopQuark]

Agreed. We've got TV cameras covering the stadiums, shouldn't be hard to get solid evidence against many of the spoiled rich kid perps. Keep it simple and simply make it a felony to go onto the field, mandatory jail time, no probation or buying off with a fine.

As with out war against terrorism, it's not the availability of weapons but the readiness to use them that is the problem. That is also the reason why the undesirable behaviors continue in both cases. I agree with all your suggestion.

P.S. Wha's this "rich kid perps" remark? Was that also "rich" kids that burned LA a decade ago? Or set fires to estates during the Russian revolution? Or sent streams of blood down Parisian streets during the French revolution? (And, incidentally, the rich kids --- all 1,000 of them here in America -- go ski trips in Alps, not the football games). Shed that envy: "The only difference between rich and poor people is that the rich ones have money. Only Marxists impute lack of morals on the bais of wealth.

[Illbay]

Then you've apparently never had to endure the traffic after a game, or wait tables in a restaurant near a speedway after a game.

NASCAR fans are the rudest, worst mannered "sports" fans on earth.

[VOA]

I can't believe fans at Cal actually rioting over a victory.
I would think winning in Berkeley would be so un-PC.

LOL!
Guess they are trying to shake the "Blame America First" image and
say "Look, we're regular guys here in Berkeley...we can riot after a sports victory
just like every great American city!"

Guess that'll revive the tourism industry there...

Of course, maybe they were rioting due to some sort of "bad karma" or improper
feng shui (sp?) of the football stadium...

[Doc Savage]

You are a complete cretin. I hope you stopped in your car by a "celebrating" mob someday, and maybe your wife or daughter is severely injured by broken glass or assaulted when the overturn YOUR car, or beat you up because you happen to be wearing the colors of the other team.

Man, you are a pathetic arsehole! Get off this website!

[TopQuark]

"Some day I've got to find a lawyer who'll help me sue my parents for inculcating me with this bothersone conscience." That's a really good one! And, please, if you find one, send him to me too.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Police fired tear gas and wooden pellets...

The news media and the PC thugs have a real fetish for non-lethal weapons. This is what happens when rioters know they can tear up the town, throw rocks and bottles at cops and civilians, and they know that the worst thing that will happen to them is a possible night in jail and a misdemeanor charge.

If the cops started using real ammo instead of beanbags and wood pellets, these riots would stop pretty quick.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I used the term "spoiled rich kids" to make the point that these riots are not simply caused by thugs from 'da hood'. This isn't Watts, its a mix of college kids, recent grads, and the usual hooligans. Just like the enviro-anarchist punks.

[RWG]

the ones responsible are the parents who are proud to be post-Christian, who cohabit rather than get married, who swear at the dinner table and patronize "movies" full of violence and raw sex...peers one and all.

[leadpenny]

NASCAR fans are the rudest, worst mannered "sports" fans on earth.

Has to be because someone's driver didn't win. {:^)

I've never seen it but then I've never stayed near the track after a race. My experience has been at Richmond a number of times, Martinsville and Pocono. Where did you run into these fans?

[southernnorthcarolina]

Of course, also fair credit should be given to Carolina. The cheese and wine crowd did their best to end up in the ACC cellar but Duke wouldn't let them!!

Yeah, North Carolina upset Duke. When's the last time that could be said about a football game? Well, we Tar Heel fans must take our small pleasures where we can find them. Lately, it's been slim pickings indeed.

Poor Dick Baddour, our Athletic Director. He was stood up by a basketball coach (Roy Williams) and a football coach (Frank Beamer), both of whom had verbally committed to move to UNC; saw both programs (temporarily, I am confident) implode in the last year; and then (this part I enjoyed) earlier this month his brother, Democratic State Representative Phil Baddour, was declared a re-election winner hours after the polls closed, only to see the outcome reversed when a tabulation error was caught, resulting in a 61-59 GOP taleover of the N.C. House.

The Tar Heels will be back. But I'm not so sure about the North Carolina Democratic Party.

[StanFran]

Well, they'd lost to Stanford for seven straight years, so there was a fair amount of pent up enthusiasm.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Seriously, something has to be done about fans storming the field and tearing down goalposts. I have no problem whatever with the Ohio State Police using pepper spray. Ever observe a goalpost close-up? Those things are structures, thick metal pipes filled with concrete and set into deep concrete foundations. People have been killed by them in post-game celebrations (an Ivy League game, of all things, if I recall correctly).

An alternative solution would be to make them disposable -- build them out of pine 2x4s, and count on them being taken down after every home team win. Injuries would still be possible, but fatalities would likely be avoided.

[FreedomPoster]

Thank you! That's exactly what I was thinking upon reading the thread title, before even reading your comment.