Why Are Fans Getting Off The Hook For Disgusting, Dangerous Behavior?

[NATO AIR]

there are always assholes that take stuff way too far, both players and fans. the sad part is, usually only the players face proper punishment while the fans get a free pass and are even further encouraged.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/michael_bradley/09/30/el.hombre/index.html?cnn=yes

Bad behavior
Bradley was wrong, but fans also to blame when players' tempers flare
Posted: Thursday September 30, 2004 12:35PM;
Updated: Thursday September 30, 2004 5:57PM


Milton Bradley is a bottle-throwing, invective-spewing, tantrum-tossing player with enough pent-up anger to fuel an army of anti-government protesters. He needs to see a whole team of anger management specialists if he ever wants to step onto a baseball diamond again, and Los Angeles owner Frank McCourt would be wrong if he allows Bradley to don Dodger Blue after this season. Trade him to Arizona for the Diamondbacks' batting order -- or a couple rattlesnakes, which might be more valuable.

There it is, America's prevailing opinion of the Dodgers outfielder. Bradley's decision to fire a plastic beer bottle into the crowd on Tuesday night at Chavez Ravine was the latest episode in a meltdown-filled career that threatens to land him in the same ring of sporting hell with Frank Francisco, Charles Barkley, Terry O'Reilly and the other short fuses who allowed the fans' abuse to turn them into patron-chargers. It's one thing to throw equipment onto the field or fail to run out a popup. It's another to attack the general public. This was a sad response by an obviously troubled player with an ugly history of misconduct.

O.K., so Bradley deserves to suffer for his outburst. But lost in this latest episode of Players Behaving Badly is the level of blame which must be assigned to the fans. Read enough about Bradley's bottle return policy or Francisco's Bob Knight imitation, and you'll no doubt encounter the phrase, "The fans pay for the right to act like idiots." Since when? At what point do we admit that there is a growing percentage of people who go to games hoping to bait a player into some form of retaliation, or at least a negative response that throws him off his game? Or, if they don't set out to do that, become so inclined after 10 beers? Paying $40 (or more) for a field box seat does not give you the right to curse, berate and abuse players. Period. Boo them. Razz them when they mess up. But don't cross the line. In each instance of player misbehavior, the fans went too far. How come nobody is decrying the very notion that someone can throw a beer bottle onto the field? Suppose it hit a player in the head? Suppose it hit another fan in the head? Everybody wants the miscreant who launched the suds prosecuted, but nobody is willing to speak up for the players and say that if they feel they are at risk, they are going to fight back, and -- this might shock you -- rightfully so.

It's hard to imagine that the fan who antagonized Bradley would have enough guts to criticize Bradley to his face, much less fire something at him were they to meet on the street. But once he bought his ticket, he entered some sheltered world where any breach of decorum goes. We're told all the time that the players have to be professional. That they have to ignore the fans. For the most part, that's right. If a player gets upset because someone shouts "YOU SUCK!" from the stands, then he's not going to be very successful. But asking athletes to tune out hurtful, profane comments and laugh it off when someone fires a battery, coin or bottle at them is unreasonable. It may be too much to assume that the hypervolatile Bradley and Francisco were stepping up on behalf of their sporting brothers, but there is no doubt some athletes applauded him -- quietly, anonymously -- for taking one for the team.

Milton Bradley was wrong. At the same time, we have to examine the culture which makes throwing a bottle at a man who drops a line drive even a remote possibility. We have to analyze the conditions that allow fans to feel justified launching profane insults at another human being, just because they have purchased a ticket to an event. If we continue to permit such bad behavior to permeate the sporting experience, we're headed for real trouble.