NFL Must Bring the Blitz To Sack Stadium Violence Immediately

On the field, the NFL just completed what is one of the best weeks in its history. With very few exceptions, the games were great. The best players played like the players. In other words, it was the exact week that the NFL needed after a lockout-filled offseason that irritated a lot of fans.

So why am I not talking about any of that right now?

Well, because for the second time in a month, we're dealing with a case of fan violence.

Take a look at this video for Sunday night's Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Jets game. Warning: It does contain foul language.

Let's start with the question that was raised by one of the fans. How did he get a Taser into the stadium?

On national TV in New York, the security should have been really tight. The pat downs were more thorough all throughout the NFL, how did someone manage to sneak a weapon into that stadium.

Still, that's not my focus. In theory, that's one person who snuck a Taser in. It's not hard to imagine how it can happen.

What I am taking a shot at is what's running through the NFL. It's a problem that gets worse every week. Basically, if fans want these things to stop, they need to take a look in the mirror.

For one, the notion that a fan is going to be abused for wearing the visiting team's jersey into a stadium needs to go away. It should never have happened in the first place, but it needs to stop now.

As a 49ers season ticket holder I actually have some experience in this. For most of my life I sat in a section that was near the opposing team's locker room and sideline. Naturally, that section had a pretty high concentration of opposing team's fans.

Almost every week, there was a confrontation of some sort. No, it was literally every fan, but the confrontations didn't usually start with anything more than the opposing team's fans cheering after a touchdown.

Now I sit on the other side of the field. There aren't as many fans in other jerseys. Make no mistake; the fans aren't any better behaved. But generally, horrible behavior is more accepted when someone sees a common fan doing that behavior.

Frankly, the fans need to do more to ensure that the experience at the games is more enjoyable for everyone.

Yes, security and the NFL in general share in this responsibility. But by pure numbers, nobody is more responsible than the fans.

I am tired of seeing fans at games that are barely sober enough to stand up straight at the coin toss. Drinking a little bit is fine, but you shouldn't do it to a point where it hinders the enjoyment of everyone around you.

When people drink, they're more likely to repeatedly use offensive language, or get offended when a fan wearing another color cheers for something. I'm not talking about the occasional bit of foul language. I am talking about repeated barrages that never end.

Mostly it's the notion that it's acceptable to challenge fans that are in opposing team's clothes. Even if the challenger has no real intention to fight, it's usually done in a pretty aggressive way.

Did this cause the incident in New York? Honestly, I don't know all the details of that. But yes, it contributes to a lot of incidents every week at every stadium in the NFL.

It needs to stop.

Going to an NFL game is too expensive and frankly, too tiring. You have to budget a lot of time to get to the games, and then to get home. It's too time consuming and obviously too expensive for fans to go to a game and not feel safe.

When fans are acting badly, they need to be called out and kicked out of the stadium. Confrontations need to be punished before they turn physical.

Let's take this game as a random example. If a Jets fan walks up to a Cowboys fan and screams "F--- Dallas." That fan needs to go. Yes, I see that happen a lot in San Francisco and it's usually treated with nothing more than a chuckle from surrounding fans.

Examples need to be made out of bad fans before they get physical. If this happens, the NFL experience has a chance of getting better. If it doesn't, then the problems are only going to grow.