Over the past few years, the NFL has been the ultimate hypocritical league in professional sports in a number of different areas. The first and most discussed one is the whole player safety issue, which the league says it cares so much about. That topic is for another day, but really? You want to add additional games, add Thursday night games and have a team in London, but you’re concerned about player safety?
Oh.
But getting back on track here, the other way the league is hypocritical is the way that it markets its games. Lately, whether its the weather or other circumstances keeping fans away, Pittsburgh Steelers home games have been rather, dare I say, empty? The ticket sales are still there, but the fans aren’t. As long as the sales are there, the game won’t be blacked out. That’s where the NFL tries to use its leverage with fans. Fans have to sellout the game in order for it to be broadcasted.
But you know what’s funny? When watching an NFL game, how many commercials do you see for the Red Zone channel or NFL players endorsing a big television? The commercials will let you, the fan, know that from the comfort of your own house, you can enjoy the action as if you were at the game. Now that there really makes me want to sit in the freezing cold with one view of the game.
Now I get it, it’s about the experience. Being surrounded by 60,000 other fans taking in a football game is a cool experience…..except when it isn’t.
And that very reason right there, is why I’ll never attend a football game again unless I’m covering it for work.
Pittsburgh fans are a passionate, loyal bunch. They win together, lose together and want to fire every coach when their team doesn’t win. But from an outsider’s perspective, they really aren’t that bad.
When I was young, I headed to Heinz Field with my dad and stepmom to watch the Lions and Steelers. I’ve been a huge Oregon Ducks fan since I was a kid, and was excited to see Joey Harrington live, in person. I had my No. 3 jersey on and expected to receive some verbal abuse, despite being 13 or so.
At halftime, my dad and stepmom get up to get some hot chocolate. As soon as they walked down the steps, I have a beer thrown on me. Yes, a 13-year-old kid is soaked from a beer because of the jersey I had on. Accident? Maybe, except for hearing “Lions suck” as it struck me.
No big deal. Crossing the line, yes, but no big deal.
Then you have a trip that my father and I made to Philadelphia to watch the Raiders take on the Eagles. As a big Raiders fan, my dad tried to make it to any game within a five-hour trip to see them play. When we got to the stadium, he had an Eagles mock-turtleneck on, with a Brian Dawkins jersey. He just looked at me and said that he’s a lot of things, but he’s not stupid enough to wear a Raiders jersey in Philadelphia.
Good call, Dad.
The Eagles fan base had a Randy Moss jersey on fire in the parking lot, and surrounded a Raiders fan in the stadium, throwing out threats left and right. The security guard came over and kicked the Raiders fan out, not the Eagles fans.
And lastly, I went to Cleveland with some friends to watch the Steelers take on the Browns. You remember that game, right? It was the only game Ben Roethlisberger lost in Cleveland, and it was negative degrees out. My friend Melissa had on a Hines Ward jersey, and despite her small frame, she had Browns fans getting in her face screaming at her.
All because of a game.
All because of a team we decide to root for.
Aren’t games supposed to be fun?
Lately, all you hear about are the tragic events that come from games. Last week, there were up to four people stab following a game in Denver. The week before that, there was a death in the parking lot after a game in Kansas City.
These aren’t the only cases. Not at all.
After a Thanksgiving game against the Oakland Raiders, a Cowboys fan was beaten unconscious.
And you want me to go to games where the fans are like this? Some experience.
Again, not all fans are like this, and Steelers fans haven’t been involved, to my knowledge, in something like this in the confines of Heinz Field or the parking lot.
When I have children, it’s going to be hard to tell them that we can’t go to a game because the fans are like savages. Sure, the opposition may have said something to instigate the fight, but does that warrant being knocked unconscious?
You don’t hear about these things happening in the NHL, NBA and outside of the Bay Area, the MLB.
Each Sunday, I’ll sit at home on my warm couch, watch football and know at the end of the day, I’ll be safe and won’t have to deal with the issues that going to an NFL game presents.
