It’s hard to know when to call things a trend anymore, but the frequency of fights among NFL fans of the same team has definitely not slowed down.
For this week’s edition of fanatic fratricide, we travel to the American Midwest, where Kansas City fans who have recently had way too much to cheer about for what seems like forever have suddenly found themselves victims of back-to-back losses. Possibly having lost their coping mechanisms during their long stretch of success, Chiefs fans turned on each other and knocked each other out after a heartbreaking loss to the Chargers on Sunday.
Ironically, not only are all of these combatants fans of the same team, at least two or three are all wearing the same jersey. Obviously, when you’re playing the Chargers, hometeam fans pretty much have to fight each other because the Chargers can’t even get fans to go to their home games, much less their road games.
Still, this is a problem.
But, what’s causing this kind of crazed behavior? It’s pretty clear the NFL has an alcohol problem at their stadiums. While the league busies itself by punishing players for ridiculous taunting calls that no one asked for on the field, they appear to have done precious little to prevent fans from pummeling each other in the stands.
However, restricting the flow of alcohol at games would require the league to limit the profits of their beer industry partners and the owners of the teams who rely heavily on concession sales. Following the money normally leads you to the cause of all ills, and this case is no exception. NFL stadiums are on their way to resembling British soccer stadiums in the ’80s, and that is not a good thing.
Action needs to be taken to prevent altercations that could eventually end in someone’s death and/or serious injury. Let’s hope the league takes decisive action before that happens.