While my Oregon Daily Emerald colleagues traveled to Husky Stadium and watched Oregon’s 34-17 win from a covered, heated press box, my friend and I braved the cold weather to watch the game as fans.
Wait, what’s that? Husky Stadium is in such dire need of renovation that its press box is open-air? Oh, well then.@@I’m totally confused. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the most accurate depiction of the press box@@
Anyway, I watched the Ducks’ eighth consecutive win in the series from a bleacher full of incredibly inebriated UW fans.
It’s a bitter rivalry, so we weren’t surprised to hear “Duck you,” (well, they didn’t say “Duck,” but it rhymed) and “Go home” as we walked around Seattle’s University District.
Hell, some of their heckling was downright funny. As we walked towards Husky Stadium from campus, breadcrumbs were tossed in our direction. Next time, I’m bringing dog treats.
Once we entered the stadium, which, by the way, we were first in line for, the verbal abuse continued. As the alcohol flowed, things morphed from the semi-relevant jabs about the Ducks’ recent performance in bowl games to the “go home (insert homophobic slur here)” variety.
When opening kickoff came around, the abuse transitioned from verbal to physical.
The Husky fans obnoxiously waved their hats on every kickoff and they hit my friend in the head — it didn’t hurt him, it was just annoying.
Then came the Darron Thomas fumble.
My friend and I were in the front row and a larger gentlemen behind me jumped off his seat and body-slammed me against the railing. (I am half his weight.) My friend was brought down in a mosh pit and driven to the bottom of a pile of eight or 10 drunk Husky fans.@@fun being a Duck fan, eh?@@
When we told them to calm down because we were not afraid to get stadium security involved (the security guy in charge of the section had said not to hesitate to get him if things got dicey), a woman around 40 years old went on a five-minute tirade about how it would be totally worth it to spend the night in jail if it meant she could beat the living daylights out of me.
In fact, I received more threats of being thrown over the railing than the Huskies had touchdowns.
Once the second-half kickoff came around, I still hadn’t received the hat treatment. That changed when we heard “Hit the little one!” after Oregon’s first touchdown of the third quarter and I too was annoyingly pummeled with hats.@@that’s actually quite funny@@
My friend and I were elbowed and shoved up against the railing so often that we both woke up the next day with sore ribs and backs.
Contrary to what it may seem like, the point of this column isn’t to single out the Husky fans. We met our share of perfectly nice Washington fans and Autzen Stadium certainly has its share of drunks.
It’s easy to shrug off the abuse home fans pile on visitors as “a part of the game,” especially when it’s in the middle of a heated rivalry, but there is a definite line crossed when that abuse transitions from verbal to physical.
There is no excuse to lay your hands on a fellow fan or to threaten to throw them over a railing. I’d like to sit here and tell you that no fan at Autzen Stadium has ever elbowed a Beaver or Husky fan, but there’s this thing in journalism called “telling the truth.”
One might say all of the abuse I endured was related to drunk fans, but alcohol isn’t to blame — stupidity is.
The bottom line is this: Control yourselves, people. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a beer or two or six at a football game, but if you can’t do that without becoming dangerous to others, then don’t drink. Period.
Rosenthal: Fans need to be more wary of dangerous behavior
Daily Emerald
November 6, 2011
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