It Only Takes One Rotten Fan To Spoil A Stadium

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Unfortunately these days, some people have forgotten the simple social graces and how to act civilly to one another.  Or worse, their parents never taught them (as we say in the south) how to act.  Many excuse poor behavior with a dismissal that goes something like “it happens everywhere, so what do you expect?”  Worst of all are the ones who actually think it is okay to be a boorish ass to someone because they made the unfortunate poor choice of attending another school and then had the audacity to show up in an opponent’s stadium to root for their team.

This letter was posted on both The Wolfpacker and Pack Pride fan forums recently, and it seems like we hear something this every year:

“To the young men in section 25 row AA at tonight’s game, I only have this to say. I have never at any football game I have ever been to seen a group of young act like such A-holes. Especially the curly headed one, and the one wearing the visor. I was the more portly guy wearing the NC State colored red shirt and the white Clemson hat. I have lived in the Raleigh area for over 10 years and attended many NC State games in the past and have never witnessed such rudeness as I witnessed tonight in your behavior toward the young men that were from USC sitting nearby. Actually in the many years I have gone to college football games, I have never witnessed any thing like I witnessed tonight.

In the past my experience with NC State fans has been extremely pleasant , I root for NC State so long as it doesn’t hurt Clemson, so I do not write this nor admonish NC State fans in general. But these young men were flipping the the young men from USC off, cussing them out, and trying to pick a fight with them, because they just happened to be sitting there. Boys you need to grow up, and quit making your (NC State) fan base look bad. I hope in the future the regular State fans in that section will speak up. I will be sitting in these same seats for the Clemson vs. NC State game and I will warn you now. You act like that to me or my wife, and I will get the police and have you kicked out or arrested. Because I’m sure most policemen will believe a 40 year old sober man, before they believe a 20 year old drunk boy with alcohol on his breath, and a drink that reaks of booze.”

I know that this has meaning to maybe one out of every thousand fans that go to a football or basketball game.  But to the few bad apples, this is for you:

Truth is, obnoxious  fan behavior does happen everywhere these days, but that’s no excuse and it doesn’t make it right for it to happen at an NC State home game.  State’s fans have the rightful heritage of being passionate and making their home arena and stadium a tough place to play for an opponent.  Unfortunately, people seem to think it cool to take that rooting interest into the stands and to make a visitor’s experience to Carter-Finley or to the RBC Center a house of horrors. And that’s wrong.  As my parents used to tell me quite often when I was growing up ‘just because someone else does something doesn’t mean it’s right for you to do it too.”  They were right.  If other school’s fans want to greet you with jackassery, that’s no excuse for you to act that way at home.

Neither is drinking an excuse.  If you can’t handle your liquor, put the bottle down, son.

We should make CFS an enjoyable place for fans of all colors to come and see their favorite team play.  Hopefully, they will go home and say that “well, we got the heck beaten out of us, but we had fun tailgating and the State fans treated us well.”  When they do that, it propogates a positive overall image of our university.  After all, if you are sitting next to a guy wearing a hat for the other team, to him, you are NC State. You might not like that, but it’s just the way that it is.  So do us all a favor and act like an adult.  Don’t make the school you say you love look horrible to other people.  If you did that to your wife or girlfriend, they wouldn’t be your wife or girlfriend long.

“To the young men in section 25 row AA at tonights game, I only have this to say. I have never at any football game I have ever been to seen a group of young act like such A-holes. Especially the curly headed one, and the one wearing the visor. I was the more portly guy wearing the NC State colored red shirt and the white Clemson hat. I have lived in the Raleigh area for over 10 years and attended many NC State games in the past and have never witnessed such rudeness as I witnessed tonight in your behavior toward the young men that were from USC sitting nearby. Actually in the many years I have gone to college football games, I have never witnessed any thing like I witnessed tonight.

In the past my experience with NC State fans has been extremely pleasant , I root for NC State so long as it doesn’t hurt Clemson, so I do not write this nor admonish NC State fans in general. But these young men were flipping the the young men from USC off, cussing them out, and trying to pick a fight with them, because they just happened to be sitting there. Boys you need to grow up, and quit making your (NC State) fan base look bad. I hope in the future the regular State fans in that section will speak up. I will be sitting in these same seats for the Clemson vs. NC State game and I will warn you now. You act like that to me or my wife, and I will get the police and have you kicked out or arrested. Because I’m sure most policemen will believe a 40 year old sober man, before they believe a 20 year old drunk boy with alcohol on his breath, and a drink that reaks of booze.”

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48 Responses to It Only Takes One Rotten Fan To Spoil A Stadium

  1. primacyone 09/09/2009 at 3:21 PM #

    http://www.goracers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6700&ATCLID=204788833

    Murray State is holding a tailgate for their fans on Saturday. The tailgate will be held in the Stadium Southeast Parking Lot, Spaces 97034-97037. It would be a nice gester on our part if everyone close to there would make them feel welcome.

  2. Hot Sauce 09/09/2009 at 3:37 PM #

    I agree with everything in the article and It sounds like State fans were 100% wrong in this. However, I would like to publish a set of rules for away game behavior for away fans.

    #1. Never talk crap about the home team. If we aren’t good, chances are we already know that. We don’t need a visitor to tell us that.

    #2. If you are in the visitors section, thats fine to jump, sing, and yell with your visiting fans. However. When you are sprinkled in a home section, don’t draw attention you yourself and be obnoxious

    #3. Never ever hang banners or throw fruit regardles of situation on an away stadium. Especially on senior day. (did you hear me maryland fans)

    #4. Never taunt a home team under any circumstances win or lose.

    Any other additions?

  3. Alpha Wolf 09/09/2009 at 3:41 PM #

    Hot Sauce, those are dead spot on.

    I know I have suffered some fools, not gladly, but I kept my lip shut. That’s happened at football, basketball and even hockey games (Buffalo fans.) There’s just no profit in it and the best revenge is watching State or the Canes win the game.

    I remember in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2006, the Hurricane geniuses gave out momento pint glasses to the fans as they were leaving. Buffalo fans were none too happy that night and were smashing them on the ground as they left. It could have easily blinded someone.

  4. Clarksa 09/09/2009 at 3:45 PM #

    “#2. …However. When you are sprinkled in a home section, don’t draw attention you yourself and be obnoxious.”

    Which is precisely why I told a USC fan to STFU as he walked by chanting “SEC, SEC, SEC” after the game was over. He had been taunting the crowd around him in Section 2 all game.

  5. TheCOWDOG 09/09/2009 at 3:51 PM #

    ” If you did that to your wife or girlfriend,…. ”

    Alpha, I’ll lay ya 100-1 that the female persuassion is not part of these bozos’ equation.

    Chick magnets, most likely not in the future resume. 🙂

  6. Texpack 09/09/2009 at 3:52 PM #

    I sat in the student section at Clemson more than once as a State student and was only given a hard time in a very good-natured way, even after our goal line stand that resulted in our most recent ACC Football championship. Friendly exchanges with opposing fans add to the enjoyment of just about any sporting event. It’s a shame some people just don’t “know how to act.”

  7. whitefang 09/09/2009 at 4:16 PM #

    Good natured ribbing is one thing. Behavior like this is totally ridiculous.
    I remember once sitting in Kenan stadium years ago when we were playing the Holes. I had been given a good seat by a friend near the 50. The guy beside of me was a complete UNC asshole. He kept on and on with the derogatory State stuff to me as we fell behind by a couple of scores. I was real close to beating his a__ but with me being 6’5″ 250lbs and 25 years younger than him, I fortunately was sober enough to sit there and take it rather than spend time in jail.
    Finally another Carolina fan decked out in blue sitting in the same row stood up, looked at the guy, and told him to “shut the F up before I come over there and kick your a__ for you.” He shut up then and when we came back and it looked like we might win (we didn’t) he left the game early.
    I still hate those a-Holes, but damn if I didn’t appreciate that gesture enough that I remember it clearly 20 years or so later.
    There is no call for crap like this at a game.

  8. phillypacker 09/09/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    Hot sauce,

    Have to disagree with you on one point.

    If a person buys a ticket for a seat anywhere in a stadium, they have the right to cheer on their team. Period. That means yell, jump up and down, whatever, as long as they are not disrespectful. If they act like assholes, whether in their home stadium or elsewhere, that is another matter.

    I have sat in the midst of a lot of away stadiums watching the Pack and only once had a problem. We need to make anyone cheering for another school as welcome as possible, just as we would want to be treated at their school. Many of us on here have stressed the need to reflect positively on NC State by demonstrating classy behavior toward other schools’ fans. I would like for CFS someday to cheer both teams as they enter and leave the field.

  9. old13 09/09/2009 at 5:12 PM #

    Amen to all of the above. There’s too many total and complete idiots our there that think that the purchase of a ticket (to any athletic event) gives them a free check to demonstrate their idiocy! I, too, would like to see C-F have a reputation for being a very difficult place for the opposition to play in, but also being very friendly to opposing fans.

  10. bradleyb123 09/09/2009 at 6:03 PM #

    I agree, phillypacker. I’ve never liked it when we booed the other team as they entered the field. Boo the officials. Boo when their coach storms out on the field yelling at the refs about something. But don’t boo them for being human beings that happen to be on the other team.

    Once exception: It’s OK to boo UNX every time we see them! 🙂

  11. caniac45 09/09/2009 at 6:18 PM #

    I have to disagree with that only because if I were a football player and I walked onto an away field, and the fans started cheering for me…… I would probably play a lot better than otherwise. Fan cheering is part of the game, disrespect is one thing, but cheering/booing is another. What’s the point of even playing at home if the fans cheered for the opposing team as they walked on to the field.

  12. bradleyb123 09/09/2009 at 6:24 PM #

    caniac45, I wasn’t so much saying we should cheer the opposing team when they run onto the field. I was more talking about the booing. Like when the other team gets a first down or scores, we don’t boo (unless it was a bad call or something). We’re just quiet. We can be that way when they run out, too.

    Booing their entrance onto the field may also serve as a motivator.

  13. Pack78 09/09/2009 at 6:48 PM #

    I remember sitting on the front row of the upper deck at Kenan back in the early eighties for a game versus the holes. My Tar Heel sister had gotten me the ticket and pre-game I had a very pleasant chat with the Heels seated in close proximity. As State took the field, I, decked out in red, stood to cheer our guys and a loud voice behind me,NOT in any kind of convivial, joking tone asked if I wanted to go over the railing. I quickly turned, found the threat-maker and informed him that I would take both he and his buddy over with me. He said nothing and the Heel next to me whispered that the the clown behind me had been a jerk all year, and he was glad that I had been able to shut him up.

  14. Wulfpack 09/09/2009 at 6:59 PM #

    Caniac I think you totally misinterpreted bradley’s statement. Nobody is saying you cheer for the opposing team — obviously. But I have always viewed booing the opposing team as a sign of insecurity on the fans’ part. So what you are saying by booing is that you wish the team in the other uniform didn’t show up? That’s kind of how I view that message. I’m happy they showed up and I want to cheer for my team to hand them a whoopin!

    I also agree with Phillypacker. You buy a ticket to a game, you have every right to sit where the ticket places you, without being verbally assaulted. If you are a diehard fan going into a game that’s a tough ticket to buy, and you have to scalp a icket in the home team’s section, so what? That’s a great fan right there. Joking jabs here and there obviously are to be expected, and serve to make the game a whole lot of fun for the folks around you, but verbal abuse at a college football game is uncalled for. It’s a GAME. Some people take this stuff WAY to seriously. They need to get over themselves and understand we’re all just there to cheer for our team and enjoy a day off of work/school watching a GAME.

    I took my nephew to a Carolina Panthers game last year. We sat in the upper deck. We had some a-holes all around us, drunk as can be, cursing, fighting, etc. Needless to say, and sadly, I won’t be taking my nephew to a game this year.

  15. caniac45 09/09/2009 at 7:37 PM #

    Yea I was more referring to phillypacker’s comment “I would like for CFS someday to cheer both teams as they enter and leave the field.”

  16. phillypacker 09/09/2009 at 8:03 PM #

    I don’t think we give away any home field advantage by being classy. Nebraska fans have always welcomed and cheered opposing teams after their games and they have always had a big home field advantage.

  17. VaWolf82 09/09/2009 at 9:06 PM #

    one out of every thousand fans that go to a football or basketball game.

    When a State student posts here at SFN that he is proud of f-bomb alley and that anyone that brings a child past his frat’s tailgate is a bad parent…then that makes me afraid that this type of behavior is more wide-spread in State’s student body than just 1 in 1000.

  18. haze 09/09/2009 at 9:10 PM #

    The only fight I was ever in at an NC State football game was with… an NC State fan. The guy was drunk and acting out as our beloved Pack slowly succumbed to a crappy UNC team (87 or 88, IIRC). The irony is that the guy that stood next to me, ready to cold cock the a$$ as he berated me for about half a minute (in front of his own MOTHER, no less), was a UNC fan. Eventually, my patience waned and I rode him down a couple of rows before cooler heads prevailed. It was a frustrating moment but a perfect illustration of how much crap can come out of an idiot with too much alcohol and too little perspective.

    CF is an awesome experience but it’s all good to welcome respectful fans from elsewhere, Heels included. If they are at the game in CF, there’s a good chance we have more in common with them than we do with most of NC State folk who are luke warm on football, generally. Enjoy it and protect the honor of the program.

  19. highstick 09/09/2009 at 9:31 PM #

    1. First, I sincerely doubt that any Clempson fan gives a rip about what happens to a South Carolina fan. That flys in the face of any credibility so I question it altogether.

    2. Tarhole fans are tarhole fans and I’ve got enough stories to make you throw up.

    3. Would someone tell Nancy Pelosi not to wear our Red and White colors! That “flys in my face” and makes me want to “throw up” even more! Wonder if she and Hillary consulted on their colors tonight!

  20. BassPacker 09/09/2009 at 10:26 PM #

    Section 14 had its own a-holes that totally ruined the entire first quarter for everyone. There is a major problem with how the university allows the students to fill their seats in section 15. Thats the student over flow lot so to speak and it over flows. Its the last area for the students to go, so they begin filling the seats long after the kick off, lining the aisles and blocking view and access because you can’t seat 1000 students in a 500 block.
    One female student got so irrate that she couldn’t get up to her friends, that she decided she was going up come hell or high water by kicking and pushing up thru the seats. She got all the way up to about row ll and was stopped where she proceded to fight and kick anyone in the area, included a pregnant lady. It took 30 minutes to get security and 4 Wake Co officers up there only to have the young lady run back down thru the crowd, knocking anyone in her way down. Not sure if they even caught her. Short of the long, it was almost second quarter before the area was clear and calm enough to watch the game. I can understand the frustration of the students who have tickets with no seats but its the university fault for not counting how many get a section 15 hand stamp, not the crowd in the section over.

  21. 61Packer 09/09/2009 at 10:46 PM #

    primacyone, do you suggest we also give your proposed Murray State treatment to UNC tailgaters when they come to town on November 28?

    highstick, your 1st point says it all.

  22. GAWolf 09/09/2009 at 10:58 PM #

    I had plenty to drink and as I left the stadium after the game I happened across a group of USC players parents rising from the endzone seats in front of the Murphy Center. They had buttons one with action pictures of their children on them. I told them all congratulations and good luck with the rest of the year. This obviously inappropriate behavior is an outlier and does in fact happen in EVERY stadium across the country EVERY weekend. I honestly don’t see any reason to rehash it here and perpetrate the focus on what is hopefully just a very small percentage of our fan base.

  23. CaptainCraptacular 09/09/2009 at 11:01 PM #

    “We sat in the upper deck. We had some a-holes all around us, drunk as can be, cursing, fighting, etc. Needless to say, and sadly, I won’t be taking my nephew to a game this year.”

    If you are taking a kid to a pro game, a piece of advice.. don’t EVER sit in the upper deck, at any stadium in the NFL. You can have a civil experience, but it will be in the club seats or the level closest to the field. The upper deck in the NFL has a much higher % of aggressive loudmouth idiot drunks, because they aren’t going to pay for better seats.

    A side note to this: The best seats in Tampa in my opinion is the upper deck wheelchair row, which is the first row in the upper deck. Nothing in front of you but a perfect view of the field and nothing behind you but a walkway and a wall, separating you from the moron sections. Of course you have to make 100% certain you don’t get stuck with a ticket for a wheelchair only seat, because if you aren’t wheelchair disabled they won’t let you just stand there. The solution to that is to get the exact seat numbers for the WC row and call the ticket office to see if its a wheelchair only seat before buying. From WC seats in Tampa I’ve watched tons of drunks in the upper deck get dragged out by security yelling and screaming, but the times I’ve sat in the lower bowl (at a couple NFL stadiums) things have been very civil.

  24. Hot Sauce 09/09/2009 at 11:17 PM #

    Phillypacker, As for my point #2… It wasn’t meaning that you have to sit on your hands and not say anything. I’m just saying that its a no win situation when you are sprinkled in a home section and you want to participate in the fight song thats being played on the other end of the stadium. As a State fan, I specifically remember being at away games in the non visiting section. I cheered when we made a play and yelled for the D to make stops on 3rd down. Never had an issue. However when you are OBNOXIOUSLY singing or in the case of last Thursday yelling SEC SEC from your seats in the home section, that can lead to problems.

  25. 87GloryDays 09/09/2009 at 11:49 PM #

    I was sitting in my sec 21 season tickets with my USC grad wife and the reaction she got was absolutely ridiculous. It was not everyone around us, but it was enough people that it was a crappy situation for her. As I told our friends around us that she pulls for the Pack in all games except for against the school she was a cheerleader at. As long as you do not taunt or act like an A-hole, you paid your $ 52 and should be able to cheer as loud as you want to, without some idiot saying G.D. or sit your a** down. It does not matter where you sit in any stadium, you have the same right to cheer for your team, home or visitor. Football is a very exciting and emotional game and getting mad at someone for enjoying that is sad. I am a proud Wolfpack Grad ( can’t say the Grad part for many of the Pack fans in my section) and will let anyone cheer for their team in CFS.

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