I understand loyalty and fans rabidly supporting their teams. But when they turn violent against other fans simply because they prefer different teams, it is appalling and sickening.
Consider the following news story that recently came out of Atlanta. This wasn't a playoff game or even a regular season game with a division title in the balance. It was a regular season game early in the year.
I sincerely hope they catch the pathetic animals responsible for this. The following was extracted from "When fans attack" by John Grupp (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
Bobby Collins has lived in Macon, GA all of his life and has loved the Pirates for nearly as long—primarily because he adored Roberto Clemente as a youngster, and watched former Pirate Chico Lind play for the club's minor-league affiliate in Macon. Through thick and thin, he has remained loyal to his Pirates. It was Collins' yearly tradition to make the northern trek to Atlanta to see the Braves play his Bucs several times during the season.
That's why it is so sickening that Collins, an optimistic, mild-mannered baseball fan, recently ended up with a broken jaw and most of his teeth missing—all because he wore a Pirates cap to Turner Field.
Collins, 52, attended the April 2 Pirates-Braves game with his 11-year-old nephew, Tyler, and a friend. While Collins referred all questions regarding the assault to his attorney, his friend who attended the game, Andy Coggins, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution what happened. Collins, wearing a Pirates hat, became the verbal target of some beer-drinking, rowdy fans sitting in front of him. They took exception to his choice of baseball loyalty; and later, one of them sucker-punched Collins as fans left the stadium.
Collins told Coggins that the attacker was among the rowdy fans sitting near them. The blow knocked many of Collins' teeth out and broke his jaw and other bones in his face, according to an Atlanta police report.
"Bobby didn't say squat to those guys," Coggins told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He didn't deserve what he got." Collins, a father of one who works in landscape maintenance, is still healing.
"I still hurt," Collins said from his home Friday afternoon. "It's the first time I had encountered anyone of that kind of behavior or lack thereof."
During the third inning, a group of six young Caucasian men sat down in the row in front of them, drinking beer and getting rowdy—but no words were ever addressed to Collins, Coggins said. But during the seventh inning, Coggins said one of the men turned around and said something abusive to Collins. Collins, who is African-American, chose to ignore it.
Coggins said they decided to leave in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Braves en route to an eventual 10-2 victory. While leaving the stadium, Collins saw a cigarette fly by the side of his face; out of reflex, he turned around and was hit by a member of the group of rowdy fans, Coggins said. The assailant escaped into the exiting, dense crowd.
Atlanta police spokesman Eric Schwartz told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he is unaware if any arrests have been made, but Coggins said it would be easy to identify Collins' attacker.
The loud group was shown dancing on the stadium's big-screen TV during the game. Police also took possession of a cell phone found under the seat of one of the suspects.
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3 months ago
It's a sad fact of sporting life that beer and partisanship often end in a punch up and usually someone innocent gets involved. As a English football supporter all my life, trouble is something ive been used to seeing. As this seems to be pretty clear cut case of assault the scumbags that did will more than likely get pinched. In English football, it happened so often the Police just let them got on with it. It wasnt worth the bother for them. Thankfully it doesn't really happen much at all these days.
3 months ago
I feel for this guy, but seriously what the hell does him being African American have anything to do with this article or what happened...
from 3 months ago
I took the mention of the perpetrator and victim's race as part of the news story.
IMO, The perpetrator's race is definitely relevant to his description which may serve to help in his arrest; the victim's race was just one characteristics mentioned which could be relevant if a suspect has a history of hard feelings toward older people, African-Americans, or even non-Braves fans.
I took it as factual details of the news story.
3 months ago
You've also only reported ONE side of the story, and presented that side as though it's fact. That's pretty shitty journalism if you ask me.
from 3 months ago
Ben, I would gladly hear the assailant's side of the story; but as of yet, he has not come forward. As I understand the story from local Atlanta television stations, the perpetrator fled on foot- like apparently the coward he is.
A man takes in a game in Atlanta. He gets harrassed for wearing clothing supporting a rival team. He later gets assaulted for it- losing most of his teeth. He was assaulted trying to walk away from publicly intoxicated individuals, never having a chance to defend himself. One Atlanta TV affiliate actually reported that he lost ALL of his teeth. Hopefully, he has insurance to pay for the dental procedure to replace his teeth.
Until the assailants comes forward, the fact (not opinion) is that this man suffered bodily harm because of a graphic image on his hat, your colorful opinion of this news article notwithstanding.
I took this story from the Internet; I also saw news telecasts on all three major network Atlanta affiliates entirely supporting the web report, including interviews with the victim- speaking through his bare gums.
3 months ago
I've been a Braves fan my entire life, and the actions of these men absolutely embarrasses me. It makes me ashamed to be associated with them. Nyle, I agree. Him being African American should have NOTHING to do with the story. He was abused verbally and physically whether he was white, black, or yellow. Ben, I don't think there needs to be two sides to a story like this. The other side of the story was told plain and simple when one of the men decided to sucker punch a 52 year old man because he was a pirates fan. That's absolutely ridiculous.
3 months ago
There does need to be another side of the story. We don't know that the man was just sitting there minding his own business and did nothing to incite anything. I'm not saying he did, but we don't know that, do we? No, we don't. You, nor I, knows what the 52 year old man said. But we just take it at his word that he did nothing? Of course that's the way he tells the story, and I'm not saying he's lying. However, we don't know for sure either.
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