Author Spotlight
David Allegri
Eyes glued to the TV, you’re watching your favorite sports team compete in the championship. As the time running on the clock slips away, they have one last chance to win it. The anticipation, the competition, the thrill slowly fades away as your team fumbles the ball. They lose their last chance to score as the clock hits 0. The mood of the room completely changes — from people jumping with excitement, to complete and utter disappointment; maybe the loss results in a fit of rage or a week of sulking.
Sporting events can bring fans together — the food, the spirit, the family brings everyone together. If they’re winning that is. If a team loses, fits will be thrown and it can ruin the experience for everyone.
The Chiefs lost to the Chargers on Sept. 26. It resulted in rightfully unhappy fans and led to a brawl in which punches were thrown, beer cans were hurled and many people were escorted out of Arrowhead Stadium.
The case of the Chargers win isn’t the only time violence has been incited after a football game: it’s the whole NFL.
These post-loss brawls have become a trend. It’s not surprising that a crowd of angry fans would attack opposing fans after they start boasting about their win.
At my job at Bike America, I watched my manager have a full blown pity party after the Chiefs lost to the Bengals, refusing to help customers and sulking in the bathroom — all because of a sports game.
According to the studies conducted by the National Library of Medicine, when a team that’s predicted to win loses, negativity swells — the rates of domestic abuse by men towards wives and girlfriends increase, generally up to 10% when the team they support loses.
And it’s not just football — all sports fans tend to get especially rowdy on game day. According to studies done by Lancaster University, when the England Soccer Club lost a game, domestic violence went up 38%. In response to the absurd pattern, the UK’s National Center for Domestic Violence even released a picture of someone’s bloody face labeled “If England gets beaten, so will she.”
For many, watching sports is just an activity to do for fun. Though game days for many women and children who live in abusive households can be dreadful.
As a fan, it’s easy to get too involved in watching a team, and emotions can run high when you watch them lose. But, the fact is that at the end of the day you have no control over the game, and it has no long-term effect on you or your life.
In an Instagram poll of 400 East community members, 83% believe that people can get too emotional when watching sports. I’ve experienced people go crazy while watching sports, with their mood and behavior based on the performance of their team — they would curse, start punching walls and even going as far as sending death threats to people who interfere with their team’s victory.
An example of such behavior was displayed after the 2003 World Series against the Chicago Cubs vs. Florida Marlins, where there was a foul ball hit to the outfield pursued by Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou and when Alou was about to catch the ball, Steve Bartmen, an unsuspecting Cubs fan beat him to it and took the ball into the stands.
The catch by Bartmen ruled the ball out of play, causing the Cubs to lose the game, and then lose the series. Some Cubs fans were enraged to the point of harassing him, forcing him to be escorted out the stadium. After the game he was berated with beer cans and received countless death threats. The abuse from the fans was so severe, then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich even suggested Bartmen go into witness protection.
It’s important to be competitive and support a team because you can be a part of a family, but when you go as far as attempting to hurt other people, and even other fans, it becomes ridiculous. Letting a game control your life is irresponsible.
Sports are supposed to be fun and entertaining to watch, and even if your team loses, life will go on and everything will be alright.
It’s just a game.
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