Come On Hawks Fans. We're Better Than This.

-The Glove-

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AgentDib":1lyh8ke4 said:
Nobody is suggesting that the behavior cited in the article should be condoned or tolerated. However, the question being implicitly debated in this thread is whether this is representative of widespread misbehavior on the part of fans. The Seattle Times article provides no support to that line of reasoning because the article suffers from Selection Bias.

There are three reasons why the story provided by the Times cannot be treated as a representative sample.

1. Only fans who have relatively poor experiences are motivated to write letters of complain to newspapers.
2. Of those fans, many are tempted to exaggerate the situation some amount to make it seem more letter worthy.
3. Newspapers do not randomly select experiences to report on because moderate outcomes are not interesting. The media deals in extremes because that is what they deem "newsworthy".

All we know based on the letter is that in the very most extreme case that the Times was able to report, a couple fans may have showed poor sportsmanship on Sunday out of a pool of 70,000 fans. Extrapolating the extreme case to the rest of the stadium is indefensible and is only done by the Times to create a story. That is no reason for us to blow it out of proportion here.
Bravo, sir! Well done!
 

hedgehawk

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Great post, AgentDib. Best take on this so far. Bravo.
 

Uffda

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Sounds awful, if true.


And those kids also only had jerseys to wear in 40 degree pouring down rain. You'd think they'd have worn a coat or something too.
 

Largent80

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Football is a passionate sport. We ALL get crazy at times, it is just that some people at certain times take it way too far.

Hell in 2009 a large group of us from this very site went to SF for the game (about 30 or so). A few of us are on the burly/muscular size, and we were still hounded, yelled at and one of us even had a constant barrage of french fries thrown at us.

If you go into an opposing stadium with gear from that opposing team on, you should expect some sort of harassment. Someone will take it further than others. It will always happen in any city, and stadium.

That does not make it right/wrong. If it becomes violent, then get involved, or get the hell out of there.

I left that game early as I didn't like the vibe and we were getting killed on the field. But nobody messed with me.
 

theENGLISHseahawk

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It's simple really - don't wear 49ers jersey's at Century Link.

Don't draw attention to yourself.
 

12thManHawkFan

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I don't agree with the way some Seahawks fans get a bit out of control down there, but here is the thing.

It's going to happen. If you are smart what you will do is not wear the visiting teams colors when you go to a Seahawks game.

Look at it this way, I'm in the Navy, when I need to go to the airport, I don't wear a t-shirt that says "Property of US Navy" all over it. It makes me think of girls that dress slutty and then complain about getting hit on. It's actually pretty dumb if you really think about it. If her family didn't come walking into the stadium wearing SF gear like a bunch of ignorant nerds, they wouldn't have even taken any verbal abuse at all. You go to the Hawks game in the visitors gear, your asking for it in my opinion.
 

SoulfishHawk

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We're flippen tame compared to other stadiums I've been to on the road. I was treated like garbage at Chicago, Cleveland and San Fran. Niners fans are psycho, and the stadium is in the ghetto. I think it sucks that a few drink people can ruin someone's experience, but no way in hell is the fanbase NEAR the level of some other cities out there. And for the record, I saw a LOT of Niners fans talking smack before the game, and starting fights in the 4th quarter.
 

NoChops

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someone should call CPS on Mrs. Brown. She lives in Washington and let her kid be a Niners fan?? There is the real crime.

sad story about their game experience though.
 

Riley12

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SoulfishHawk":38intgk6 said:
I saw a LOT of Niners fans talking smack before the game, and starting fights in the 4th quarter.

On Occidental, smack talking Niner fans were the norm rather than the exception.

Going all of the way back to the original post, I think the point that needs to be reiterated is that worn out
"If you see something, say something." Or, at least, flash a "Don't be a Harbaugh" sign on the stadium screen once in a while.
 

SoulfishHawk

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Well, I had an incident on Saturday, during the day. I was taking my daily walk down past the stadium (ritual until we are done this year), and I was minding my own business, taking a pic of the stadium. I hear behind me "Your team is a joke, you have no shot tomorrow night!" It was 3 big Niner fans who had nothing better to do than get up in my grill and talk smack. I just grinned and walked away, the smell of their fear was enough for me. Not to mention, 3 big psycho Niners fans, not worth it.
 

Largent80

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I challenge the woman and all her family to go to the dump known as candlestick, and wear Hawk gear....see what happens then.
 

SoulfishHawk

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No doubt, been there 3 times, was treated horribly all 3 times. I don't talk smack on the road, ever. They sought us out and just were ridiculous. Of course, the stadium is half full once the team starts losing. Niner Faithful my a**
 

birdman5

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I've been lurking here for a long time, but joined only yesterday. I read the article in the OP because comments on it were blowing up my twitter timeline. I wondered if I should post it in here, but figured it wouldn't be the best thing as my introduction to the forum. Also, I was certain that someone else would do it sooner or later. I'm not going to comment on it myself, except to say it brought to mind this article.

http://m.nypost.com/p/sports/giants/und ... 4oCRu6b2LN
 

SharkHawk

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So there you go guys.... it sounds like you're ok with us being no better than 49er fans. Is that how we want to be seen? I want to be known as classy fans that cheer and scream the loudest in the league, but we have a stadium where people can feel safe.

My brother got knocked around in LA when the Hawks won the division back in oh.... 1989 or so? The Raiders were playing at the LA Colliseum. He and another brother and 2 friends were attempting to exit the stadium and he got smashed into quite a few times to the point where it was obvious they were trying to get him on the ground and see what they could do to mess him up. He was smart enough to hurry into a little nook and get his jersey off fast and ditched it by folding it up and hiding it in his pants and wore his plain white undershirt out.

Nothing like that should happen anywhere, but the OP simply said, "Come on Hawk Fans, We're Better Than This". I couldn't agree more. But after reading some of the responses.... maybe we're not better than this. Maybe some are, but apparently a lot think it's a-ok and to be expected. I see fans of teams I dislike wearing their jerseys everyday. I'm glad there is interest in the NFL and that there are rivals who buy tickets, who make it so that somebody wants to broadcast the games, and that provide cities like Seattle with the taxes needed to build such a fantastic stadium. As I said before.... that wasn't just Seahawks fans paying for that stadium. In fact, a large percentage of it was tourist dollars (and still is). That doesn't mean I think they should be carried into the stadium like kings, but maybe we can let them attend a game without worrying about death. Sadly it will take something awful beyond awful before a lot of minds are changed, and it's a matter of time. It's like an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. You can feel it building. Stadium violence is on the rise and it's a matter of time before it happens in Seattle and maybe some eyes will open to what is a serious problem. I hope like crazy it never happens, but I'm afraid we're kind of at the point of no return here, and then lots of folks will have answers about how to fix it. I'd love it if we had those answers now rather than after a woman, child, or even a full grown man has to experience it.
 

Zowert

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Wow.. Just read the article, that's so unfortunate. Makes me kind of embarrassed to be a fan sometimes. Not just Seahawks, but football in general. This happens at EVERY stadium in the country, if you wear the opposing team's jersey, you get harassed, that's just the way it's been since I can remember. Most of the people who do the harassing are actually decent folks, just had a bit too much to drink and let their emotions take control.

I know its just a game and anyone should have the right to wear whatever they want to a stadium. Its a free country. However, that won't stop people from screaming profanity at you. Pretty much everyone should know this by now. If you wear an opposing team's jersey into a stadium, any NFL stadium, you're going to be in for a very long day/evening. Unfortunate, but it is what it is. They're not going to stop selling alcohol at football games and those nutty, profanity screaming J-offs at the game happen to bring in a lot of revenue for the Seattle Seahawks.

Anyway. Although the behavior was totally unacceptable, in that article. It hails in comparison to what I underwent at a 49ers game. I wasn't crazy enough to wear a Seahawks jersey at Candlestick, but I couldn't help but wear my new Seahawks hat. Just with a hat, I was screamed at all game long. Had random Niners fans scream inches from my face every time the Seahawks were scored on or turned the ball over.

I am guilty as sin when it comes to bad behavior at games though.. Towards the end of that same game, someone behind me snatched my hat off my head and started rubbing his a$$ with it, screaming, I ended up grabbing him by the collar and pulling him down an entire row, where he landed flat on his back. Right as I was about start punching him, I had about three other Niners fans jump on my back. I was with a friend (I would never go to Candlestick alone and cheer for the Hawks, lol!) who tried to get the guys off me, but he was then jumped too. Lucky for us, security was there within thirty seconds and we weren't beat up too bad.

Long story short, it took about four big security guards and a SF police officer to get these guys off of us and escort us out of the stadium. On the way out, we had beer poured all over us from Niners fans on both sides of the isle we were running up. It was a nightmare. Never got my Seahawks hat back. I can't even imagine what they did to my hat after I left.. In the end, no one was even sent to jail, the cop just told us to get on the bus and go back to our hotel.

I learned a very valuable lesson, if you are a Hawks fan and want to go to a 49ers game when the Seahawks are in town, call up Candlestick and ask to sit in a family friendly section. We just grabbed whatever tickets we could get ahold of at the time, since we were in town for business. We had no other choice. It ended up being one of the rowdiest parts of Candlestick.

Never again...

Also: I have heard some pretty harrowing stories from fans of opposing teams that went to a game in the Bay Area against the Oakland Raiders. My friend has a colleague that's a Broncos fan, he was stabbed when he went to a game in Oakland. Not in the stadium, but after the game in the street. A group of guys in black Raiders jerseys came up from behind him, roughed him up and one of the guys ended up stabbing him in the side right before they ran away.

The Bay Area seems to be a pretty violent place for sports fans in general. Not too long ago, a random guy (who was a laid back husband and father) was brutally assaulted by a group of Dodgers fans. The sad thing is this was not in L.A. but SF, when the Dodgers were playing the Giants in San Francisco. If I remember correctly the guy was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized for quite a while. The first few days he was hanging on to life by a thread.
 

Jayburd14

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The funniest part about that article was in the comment section written by a guy in Chicago that was talking crap about the wrong Vancouver.
 

JonRud

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This kind of shit is why I hate going to Seahawks road games. I have seen them play many times in the Meadowlands, twice in Foxboro, once each in Chicago, SD and this year in Toronto. I always wear full Hawks gear...and many times I take a lot of abuse for it. In SD [1996] I had stuff thrown at me in my seat and have had tons of verbal abuse in NY & Foxboro. I am a big guy but it doesn't matter.

I will not go to a Hawks game and not wear my gear...so I rarely go to road games anymore. Even last year when the Hawks came to NY [Browner!] I didn't go because I'd rather watch at home then spend 4 hours being abused by drunk Giants fans. It's just not fun. No way in a million years would I take my kids to a Hawks road game and wear Hawks gear - that's idiotic.

To me there is no better experience in sports than watching a Hawks game in Seattle...but if you are an opposing NFL fan you should not wear your team's gear if you don't want to attract abuse. It's sad but that's how it is and you have to know that going in. Either don't go or don't wear your colors.
 
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