I mean don't bring your kids to a Seattle game dressed in Duck and 49er garb then be all stunned when they take a little verbal bashing. First, get a clue. Second, don't come back.

Some of the most rude fans I've witnessed at games were dressed in another team's colors. Where's the article about them?

Somehow I believe the woman who wrote the letter/story is a tad sensitive to things that most of us wouldn't give a second thought to. Really, bodyguards? Sorry, I'm not buying it. She makes it sound as if at every single point of her "innocent and harmonious journey to Seattle" that her and her children were threatened and bullied. I would be skeptical of one point of incidence as she describes it, but to claim multiple incidents involving different people causing her to fear for her physical safety just sounds like a lie.

Adults picking on a 14 year old before the game started? And then to throw in the part about her son never wanting to go to a pro game again. Tell me this, would anyone of you stand by while drunken adults terrorized a 14 year old? I doubt it. The secretary's story wreaks of exaggeration just shy of flat out bullshit!

As a life long Seahawks fan who went to his first home game....at the first home game in 1977, Things HAVE really changed. I was 11 years old during my first season with the Seahawks. My parents felt it was totally ok to buy our family season tickets and take me to every game, where their largest worry was strategic parking before the game. They had no worry that I would be exposed to rude fan behavior, or that some drunken fan would throw up on us. In fact, I can remember no specific incidents of bad fan behavior from Home fans or visiting fans. In fact, we had a KC Chiefs fan sit in front of us one game early on.....and 10 years later that same fan sat in the same seat and my dad greeted him like a lost friend and they bantered back and fourth the whole game....all in good fun. We were ALL fans of football. We held those seats until they brought the place down.

Since those days, our entire culture has changed..... This is not just a football fan issue. This is a larger issue. It has become ok to yell and ridicule people. It has become ok to be disrespectful to women. It has become totally ok to publicly shame another person. I see this behavior most often with the under 25 crowd. Trashing another person on facebook, or twitter or a message board is the new normal........My 18 year old daughter says its fun. Is anyone surprised this behavior then comes out in public, with total strangers....where it is easy to be anonymous hiding behind a fan jersey in a stadium full of 65,000 other people? Man, I don't. It's shameful really.

You can call me old, or stupid, or nostalgic or whatever the hell you want....but I think everyone should be able to experience being a fan. The game day experience is what made me into a lifelong Seahawks fan. I don't want parents to not want to take their kids to a game because they are worried. Now....with that said, I would not take an 11 year old to an away game. I expect a certain amount of ribbing, and a run in or two with a guy who has had too much. I can deal with this just fine....and have most recently at Mile High Stadium a couple of years ago.

It just comes down to treating people the way you would want to be treated. Unfortunately, that's a pretty low level for some.

_________________

Disappointing to read that, but at the same time I think that lady is exaggerating about there being more abusive people than nice people. The last time I went to a game was the 2010 season opener. There was a lot of talking back and forth the security kicked people out left and right but for the most part the majority of fans were well behaved. After the game the 49er fans wouldn't shut up, one group kept harassing everyone. A Seahawks fan told him to go home, and the Niner fan shoved him - it was broken up immediately. Another group was in a couple's ear because the girl was in a Niner jersey and the guy a Seahawks jersey. One 49er fan kept saying, "You're pissing me off. You want to fight?". Even though the Seahawks fan never talked, the girl looked terrified. I noticed a Renton cop who was off-duty (I just recognized him from around town) and he was there to walk between them to make sure nothing bad happened. NFL fans be pretty crazy.

Uh huh. Ok, thanks for setting me straight. I could care less if they are drunk jackasses or real fans. What happened to Bryan Stow happened in the Dodgers Stadium parking lot, and it doesn't matter if that was done by "fans" or "drunk jackasses". Either way he suffered brain damage and nearly died.

All I am saying is that Seattle is quickly heading this way. I've been to games in many different decades and it is very clearly getting worse, even as security and technology for security is getting better by leaps and bounds, they still aren't keeping up with the fighting and worse that is going on. They can't keep up as it's getting worse.

I always thought Seattle was better than that. I remember leaving the stadium and actually being let out by another driver and seeing how quickly the stadium cleared. People would wave each other through, tell them when it was clear, etc. I also saw everybody obeying the traffic lights... both pedestrians and vehicles. And interestingly enough, that same attitude seemed to take place in the stadium. Now I see less and less of each thing. That's all I'm saying. When you start spiraling downward, it is very hard to make a comeback and get out of such a mess. But what do I know? Not much apparently. Apparently it is all because a fan of a team has the nerve to wear the "colors" (WTF?! Is this 1992 in Compton? PLEASE!!!) of their team and they "have it coming." Just stupid.

_________________

R.I.P. Dad. I miss you. You will never be forgotten
1/12/39 - 8/7/08

That's so ridiculous.

I hate the Niners .. but they have every right to support their team, home or away, if they spend their hard earned money to see them. There is friendly trash talk and there is harassment/abuse. If the story told by this Niner fan is true.. it's downright shameful she had that type of experience.

I've seen Seattle play on the road in SF, Phoenix and Denver - I had fans give me shit.. I gave it back.. but it was all just good natured trash talk. That's all that should happen anywhere. Like Aros said.. we should be better than this. Much better.

_________________
Seahawks vs. TBD - Super Bowl 48 - February 2, 2014

Agreed. I would never stand by and just watch as some douche gets in a kids face. Im calling Bull.

_________________

"God Bless Russell Wilson"

The Seattle Mariners: Plenty of good seats still available.

Might be more to her liking.

_________________
60 percent of the time..........it works........every time

This sums it up pretty well. I've taken crap from hostile fans; I just ignore it and nothing comes of it. I'm sure the opportunity for escalation existed if I did otherwise.

My favorite was in Cleveland when a Browns fan yelled at me, "Go back to Seattle!" I laughed pretty damn hard and refrained from saying, "You think there's any chance that I'm going to choose to STAY in Cleveland?" What a hellhole of a city.

This may be the way to go, but if so, it shouldn't have to be. Anyone should be free to wear their favorite team gear in any stadium. It's a game for crying out loud. They paid good money for their tickets, plus travel cost, etc. They are a guest in Seattle and at C-Link and should be treated as such. Joking that their team is going to get smashed, obliterated and eviscerated by the Hawks is one thing, screaming f bombs in people's faces is something else entirely.

_________________
Help bring peace to the South LA / Puget Sound communities. Are you in?
http://www.abetterla.org | https://www.causes.com/fb/donations/new?cause_id=62891&fundraiser_id=14387774&m=2799c87f
http://www.abetterseattle.com | https://twitter.com/#!/ABetterSeattle

I agree with this. I think there's a level of decorum and respect that you need to show when in an opposing team's stadium, and problems happen when this respect isn't given.

I've been to many games at the Clink since 2002, and it's almost always harmless ribbing happening. Lets see these same 49ers fans go to Oakland Colliseum and see what a REAL hostile crowd is like. In short: these people need to grow a pair.

My wife and I attended the Hawks / Vikings game earlier this year. I was wearing my Seahawks ( Alexander ) jersey and she was wearing a Vikings jersey. We had lots of people from both sides make good humored comments to us about our mixed colors. No problems whatsoever.
If this crap (article) is happening, well, these people need to understand that it is just a game and that the game would not be possible without an opponent. Stay classy people.

Hey Midwest, funny you mention the Cleveland thing. We had someone yell to us "go back to Seattle" We simply responded "Gladly"

_________________
60 percent of the time..........it works........every time

I have always found the opposing fans at the Clink more out of line then the locals.

_________________

I don't know. I have only been to one game and it was against the niners and their fans were the ones talking. I feel the woman a Niners fan maybe hyped up what really happened. She could be sore about the loss or the fact that we all know that their stadium has more issues with other teams visiting than most places. But if it is true I hope it stops. I know the Hawks have been looked at as weak and pathetic for a long time but lets keep it on the field and let the players do the beating.

_________________
One day we will win it all!

Most of you have cell phones with cameras. There are also microphones available for cell phones. I suggest you use them. Document and help security do their jobs.

Haha. Seriously never going back to that city unless my job requires it for some reason.

What a hole in the wall that city is, wow. I won't even go into some of the stuff that was said to me at halftime when we had the lead. Brutal. Now Chicago, that was an entirely different level.

_________________
60 percent of the time..........it works........every time

Chicago fans are awful. Too bad, because unlike Cleveland they've got a great city. But the sports fans are hideous and I auto-root against Chicago in everything now because those people deserve to walk around in a stupid drunken haze wondering what just hit them after every game.

Also went to Seahawks-Colts here in Indy three years ago, Colts fans were cool. And I've been to St. Louis, fully expecting (even hoping) to hate their fans, but they were actually cool people as well.

I loved the city of Chicago, so much to do. I have a ton of relatives out there too. We did the Colts game too, incredible fans. They were so friendly, and the stadium was pretty mellow. We were just Peyton's next victim. Maybe the best fans I've been around for a road game, right up there with Miami and Denver.

_________________
60 percent of the time..........it works........every time