It seems as if every week of NFL action results in videos of one or more fights among fans in one or more NFL venues.
More fighting happened on Monday night at SoFi Stadium, where the Cowboys faced the Chargers. As explained by Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times, multiple skirmishes occurred, throughout the night.
From the concourse to the stands, partisans of the two teams — who fought on the field before the game began — did battle among each other.
Ultimately, per Henson, no arrests were made.
It’s become an accepted risk of going to NFL games. Between the raw emotion and the overpriced (and overconsumed) alcohol and the physicality playing out in front of the fans in attendance, the planets align in a way that results in humans pushing, shoving, punching and/or kicking other humans.
It shouldn’t happen. The simple fact that it does, and that the various teams know that it might, is reason enough for every team to carve into the exorbitant profit margin to better protect the paying customers.
Although any and all fights are the direct result of intentional acts of violence directed by one or more persons to one or more others, it’s all foreseeable to those who make money from the thousands crowding into the stands to watch any given NFL game.
Whatever the teams are doing to prevent such incidents isn’t enough, as evidenced by the fact that the fights keep happening. Maybe it’s as simple as not selling beer at the games. Maybe it’s more complicated (and costly), requiring stadium operators to have at least one or more security officers assigned to every single section of seats.
Already, security guards blanket the field to keep the fans from interfering with the players, coaches, and others who are working the game. Why should those who have forked over good money to attend the game be entitled to any less protection?
Maybe some teams and/or stadium operators are willing to accept the risk that someone will be seriously injured or even killed. Maybe they’re willing to go through the motions of defending any lawsuits that are filed (blaming the victims along the way, if need be) before settling the cases. It becomes even easier if there are insurance policies that will provide coverage for the payment of any claims to injured fans.
The bar should be higher than that. The risk of getting seriously injured or worse in a fight at an NFL game shouldn’t be part of the experience. It’s for the NFL and its teams to come up with viable strategies to prevent these fights from happening.
The players are paid to accept the inherent physical dangers of playing football. The fans who are paying to be there should be accepting no physical risk at all.
That’s the challenge for the league, if the league is willing to accept it. The fact that these fights keep happening shows that, to date, the league is not.
Every team should have executives who are responsible for ensuring the safety of all fans during games, taking into account the cocktail of factors (including the influence of cocktails) will lead to altercations. It all comes down to how much money the teams are willing to spend on the front end, versus whatever money will be spent after the fact to provide compensation to someone who was simply trying to enjoy a football game without ending up getting medical treatment for one or more injuries that happened because the stadium wasn’t able to keep a fight from becoming dangerous or, even better, to prevent a fight from happening at all.
It needs to be a priority for the league. Almost every weekend, we’re reminded that it is not.
Most fans aren’t deterred by the risk of going to a game and getting injured by a fan. Maybe they should be. Those who end up getting injured in a fight surely wish they had been.
