I’ve been following it for some time but I rarely come across fans like in European football. Like organized ultras and fans or even teams with political affiliations of fan bases. Like in soccer they are very hostile to opposing players and fans but in NFL it seems a bit chill. Mostly everything seems peaceful and not hostile to opponent players and fans. Why?
I don’t watch any other sport in US except football so I don’t know much about other sports.
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You clearly have never seen an Eagles game
You clearly have never seen a Raiders game
Despite what the world would have you believe, we are a modern civilized society.
Soccer hooligans and the like are scene as backwards and barbaric.
That said, we are rabidly vocally unpleasant to other fans and teams. Only physical violence is generally shunned.
There have been games where the fans are openly hostile to the players, but the NFL has done a good job stamping that out.
You need to remember that even the most lowly NFL franchise is on the same level as a top Premier League team (Man U, Chelsea, etc). When a team reaches that level of professionalism they foster a culture that’s not nearly as rowdy as the lower level teams.
We recognize the sport is for entertainment.
Would you fight someone because they like a different rock band than your favorite band? Sounds dumb, right? That’s how fighting fans of other teams sounds to us.
eta: that said, it isn’t unusual for drunken fights to happen in the stands. They normally won’t be shoen on TV unless it actually interferes with the game. Cameras cut away for streakers because networks and the NFL don’t want to give them attention.
Just off the top of my head, I can only recall one time where the broadcast gave attention to bad fan behavior. https://youtu.be/C7TrNh6q3jw
At a game, anything more violent than shit talk isn’t really tolerated and will get you not only removed from the stadium, but in some places, banned from attending future games for some length of time.
They’re called raider fans and they love to cause fights and be chased around the stadium by half the city’s security guards until they get tazed
Well that’s not always the case lmaoooo.
But it is true most of the time. Football fans recognize that we’re there for fun and our identities and self-esteem are not tied to the on-field performance of people we will likely never, ever meet.
I personally don’t understand why soccer spectators are so hostile to the members of the opposing team and their fans. What’s the point? Showing your ass isn’t going to affect the outcome of this match, You aren’t playing, dude. You’re not relevant to anybody or anything here. STFU and have a beer.
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* Most US sporting venues end alcohol sales about 30 minutes before the game ends. This helps reduce how many alcohol-fueled poor decisions are made.
* Most US sporting venues have a heavy security presence where a single unruly fan will be quickly detained before they can instigate a larger mob reaction. This presence significantly increased following 9/11.
* Most US sporting venues require some sort of basic security check that helps limit what sort of dangerous paraphernalia can be brought inside the stadium.
* Most US sporting teams don’t come prepackaged with other identities in the same way that many European football clubs do. We don’t have a working class team versus an upper class team. Pretty much all our teams are based on geographic proximity and have fans across the political, race, and class spectrum. (This exists somewhat in some cities like the Cubs and White Sox.)
* That being said…the US does have instances of fans throwing items on the field, streaking, throwing things at players, etc. It’s not unknown here. [Malice at the Palace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_at_the_Palace) is one such example. Also, there have been instances of small-scale rioting and looting after a city’s team won a championship.
EDIT: I’d also suspect that European soccer hooliganism is probably played up by the media and isn’t near as large a problem as it’s made out to be.
There’s lots of elements of nazism in European football.
I’m not too familiar with sports let alone foreign sports. But I read a different thread that no other sports have such hooligans like soccer. Is that true? That it might be something unique to soccer and not sports fandoms.
There can be of course, but in different ways outside of fighting each other. Part of it is less interaction between fans, in the UK for example games can be played by cities minutes apart, with fans travelling up and down the country even meeting in big transport hubs. Soccer was an intensely working class, male dominated sport, not a family friendly day out at all. Even then it is peculiar to the sport, there aren’t Rugby hooligans. Cricket fans may get drunk and sing songs about the opposition but there isn’t violence involved. (Pakistan and India matches may be a different story).
The stuff that fans do in European football is monstrous to us. The gang violence, the racism, the possessiveness – it’s far outside what we would consider acceptable in sports. Say what you will about the US, but team owners want games to be family-friendly events, because that’s what makes them more money. So sports rivalries are much more lighthearted, and problematic conduct of fans is dealt with more heavy handedly. Also, having an open discourse about racism in America really helps reduce the racist outbursts – Europeans like to pretend they don’t have problems with racism, but really it’s just unaddressed.
Why do your communities tolerate violence from sports fans? Why do your teams/ownership tolerate it?
Someone ran out onto the field during an NFL game recently (like last week) and got absolutely leveled by a very large man in pads and a helmet who’s job it is to level people.
All the other comments are right / add more detail but this is important to consider too
The US has never really had “ultras” or holligans in any sport, nor do we have the political associations with teams that some places do.
So, it’s basically about kicking out drunk assholes who cause problems. Most people don’t want to be kicked out and banned for life.
Isolated incidents still happen, there are probably a couple fights between drunk idiots at most games, but it’s nothing widespread.
Bad fans do happen in the NFL just not to the same extent and not really as organized as ultras groups.
My anecdotal story:
I was once given free tickets to the Cleveland Browns by a friend who has season tickets who couldn’t use them so he gave them to me. I witnessed a drunken man a few rows in front of me assault a little girl (she was probably 8-9?) because she and her parents were cheering for the Baltimore Ravens and had Ravens cloths on. This “man” waited for the girls father to leave the girl and her mother, started yelling at them and then ripped off this little girls jacket and was trying to rip off her Ravens shirt before some other Browns fans started beating the shit out of that guy. Eventually cops showed up and arrested the drunk guy.
It really depends on the two fanbases involved whether or not nasty stuff happens. The last one that was really bad was August 20 2011 49ers vs Raiders preseason game. Anytime they met it was known as Battle of the Bay. Why would people care about a preseason game? Well, it’s mad cheap so the riffraff could afford it. People tailgating in the parking lot got hammered. It was a bay area rivalry that just had everything line up to be a disaster. Battle of the Bay was canceled until the Raiders moved to Las Vegas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49ers–Raiders_rivalry
Because why ruin the experience for everyone?
While there are isolated incidents of violence, and big unruly celebrations (bordering on riots) aren’t unheard of after a major (and unexpected) sporting win, the culture of sports fans in the US is very different than much of the rest of the world.
Virtually nobody would think of getting actually violent with other people simply because they support the other team. Team loyalties are usually more about where you live and supporting the local team (aside from a handful of major teams with fans nationwide). People might make rude remarks in the heat of the moment, but coming to blows is all but unheard of.
The idea of getting actually violent with people over a football game is just alien, and abhorrent. It’s a game, and even if it’s a big deal to a lot of people. . .it’s still just a game. Nothing to hurt people over.
It’s the same in all the major sports leagues: NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL. It’s also like that in college sports as well (in much of the country, college sports are as popular as professional ones).
Also, stadium security is very tight, and they cut off alcohol sales before the end of the game, to help curb alcohol-fueled idiocy and ensure that isolated poor decisions don’t cause an angry mob.
Tickets to NFL games are expensive. Average ticket price for a Giants game is $190. (Yea, it’s possible, maybe, to get $40 tickets). The high prices keep the riffraff away from the stadiums.