Post by TheShadow on Sept 13, 2008 10:56:58 GMT -5
www.contracostatimes.com/
By Angela Hill
Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Raiders may have lost to the Denver Broncos in a spectacular and numerically palindromic fashion (41-14) in Monday night's season opener. But fans can take solace in the knowledge that they themselves scored gangbusters in violations of the new "fan code of conduct," implemented this season by the National Football League and by the Raiders themselves. The code has stuff about not fighting, not using alcohol irresponsibly, not using foul language or crude gestures and not taunting fans of the opposing team.
Yeah, I know. At a Raiders game. It's OK. You can start laughing now.
So anyway, I went to the game, one of many I've attended in my time, thinking I'd keep an unofficial score of conduct-code-cracking culprits, just for fun. I did this for about half an hour, but my abacus burst into flames, so I gave up.
After all, I decided everybody caps on Raiders fans to the point where it's really become cliche. I mean, by now, this is one of the known facts of the universe: gravity is a drag, the sky is blue, cats are aloof and Raiders fans behave badly. Boring. Yawn. Zzzz.
So instead I embarked that night on a more challenging quest. The search for the mild-mannered, well-behaved fans, those rare creatures among the sold-out crowd of more than 62,000 who actually conducted themselves according to the generally agreed-upon laws of civilization whether or not there was a posted code (which, to quote Captain Barbosa, of the "Pirates of the Caribbean," is really more like a collection of guidelines anyway) and who let their inner Emily Post pilot them even under the most extreme pressure to fight, spit, curse and hold a severed Bronco head up on a stick.
And I found some. Really! It's true!
One showed up in quite an unexpected moment. Making my way through the main concourse level at McAfee Coliseum just before kickoff, dodging spilled beer and sticky concrete, forging upstream through the river of black-shirted beings, my eardrums beaten down by the haunting, echoing battle cry of "RAY-durrrrs" (which, after fans have consumed enough alcohol, starts to sound more like "LEE-murrrs"), and hearing enough unprintable words beginning with F to make Samuel L. Jackson blush, it happened: one burly chap stepped on my foot.
Yet what did he do? He neither cursed at me nor engaged in a smack down for my having rudely placed my foot in his path. Rather, he immediately realized his faux pas, grabbed me by the shoulders to steady me lest I fall beneath the crushing line at the Kinder's Barbecue concession, grinned and gave me a half hug, the Raider version of those high-society air kisses at the symphony's opening gala. It was almost gallant.
Earlier, out in the parking lot, I had actual conversations with some actual nice people, too.
"We're very kind to everyone," said Jose Poblete Jr., 29, of Oakland. His friend, Rick Egan, 33, of Fremont, agreed. "We love our fellow man," he said, turning to hide something on the back of his shirt. What's that you've got there, Rick? Oh, it says, "Broncos suck!" Imagine that. "Oh, that has nothing to do with defying the code of conduct," he added quickly. "I just wear this all the time. To sleep in, even."
I spent a few minutes with a guy who was bold enough to wear a Broncos shirt to the game, and even he didn't seem fazed by the general behavior. I don't know if he was high or perhaps a few yards shy of a first down, but he kept smiling. Smiling! Right in the face of every profane pronouncement and insult to his team, his manhood and his mother, kind of like Gomer Pyle grinning away in front of a spitting-mad Sgt. Carter.
"It's what you expect at a football game, especially with the Raiders," he shouted over the steady chorus of "F--- the Broncos!"
"I've been to four Raiders games wearing this shirt. I'd say 99 percent of it is in good fun. They'll yell at you, spill your beer. Then there's that 1 percent that seriously wants to hurt you. But even that — it's all part of the package."
I asked one very tall woman wearing chain mail what she thought of the fan code of conduct. "It's bull (rhymes with spit)," she said, identifying herself as Lady Chains and managing to commit at least three code violations all at once. And proudly so. "They're saying people can't wear shirts against the other team. That's ridiculous. It's a rivalry. That's what football is all about. Sure we talk some smack, but we don't hurt anybody."
She too hugged me, and we parted ways. Go. Run free, Lady Chains! Don't let The Man shackle your rebel ways!
It is true that some people do get hurt sometimes. There were some serious fights, arrests and ejections Monday night. One bright bulb even punched a cop and started a huge brawl. So certainly, the Raiders need to quell fights and make sure rowdy fans don't throw stuff on the field. Oh, and people, please, try to hit the garbage receptacles in the parking lot, will ya? Man, it was a total trashapalooza out there when I left.
But we all have to realize Raiders fans are not going to suddenly emulate the ever kind and gentle Niners fans. Yawn. Zzzz. If people can't taunt the other team, can't drink or swear, can't behave like wild teenage boys in a locker room or hang a Bronco in effigy, then the Raiders wouldn't have any fans at all because the team currently sucks (yes, more than the Broncos) and the only reason anybody goes is for the atmosphere, such as it is, which we all know is not sushi, Dom Perignon, Bach and tuxedoes but ribs, Coronas, AC/DC and the wearing of skulls on your shoulders. It's often rude and crude and sometimes lewd. It's a commitment to petulance, baby, but if you don't like it, don't go.
By Angela Hill
Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Raiders may have lost to the Denver Broncos in a spectacular and numerically palindromic fashion (41-14) in Monday night's season opener. But fans can take solace in the knowledge that they themselves scored gangbusters in violations of the new "fan code of conduct," implemented this season by the National Football League and by the Raiders themselves. The code has stuff about not fighting, not using alcohol irresponsibly, not using foul language or crude gestures and not taunting fans of the opposing team.
Yeah, I know. At a Raiders game. It's OK. You can start laughing now.
So anyway, I went to the game, one of many I've attended in my time, thinking I'd keep an unofficial score of conduct-code-cracking culprits, just for fun. I did this for about half an hour, but my abacus burst into flames, so I gave up.
After all, I decided everybody caps on Raiders fans to the point where it's really become cliche. I mean, by now, this is one of the known facts of the universe: gravity is a drag, the sky is blue, cats are aloof and Raiders fans behave badly. Boring. Yawn. Zzzz.
So instead I embarked that night on a more challenging quest. The search for the mild-mannered, well-behaved fans, those rare creatures among the sold-out crowd of more than 62,000 who actually conducted themselves according to the generally agreed-upon laws of civilization whether or not there was a posted code (which, to quote Captain Barbosa, of the "Pirates of the Caribbean," is really more like a collection of guidelines anyway) and who let their inner Emily Post pilot them even under the most extreme pressure to fight, spit, curse and hold a severed Bronco head up on a stick.
And I found some. Really! It's true!
One showed up in quite an unexpected moment. Making my way through the main concourse level at McAfee Coliseum just before kickoff, dodging spilled beer and sticky concrete, forging upstream through the river of black-shirted beings, my eardrums beaten down by the haunting, echoing battle cry of "RAY-durrrrs" (which, after fans have consumed enough alcohol, starts to sound more like "LEE-murrrs"), and hearing enough unprintable words beginning with F to make Samuel L. Jackson blush, it happened: one burly chap stepped on my foot.
Yet what did he do? He neither cursed at me nor engaged in a smack down for my having rudely placed my foot in his path. Rather, he immediately realized his faux pas, grabbed me by the shoulders to steady me lest I fall beneath the crushing line at the Kinder's Barbecue concession, grinned and gave me a half hug, the Raider version of those high-society air kisses at the symphony's opening gala. It was almost gallant.
Earlier, out in the parking lot, I had actual conversations with some actual nice people, too.
"We're very kind to everyone," said Jose Poblete Jr., 29, of Oakland. His friend, Rick Egan, 33, of Fremont, agreed. "We love our fellow man," he said, turning to hide something on the back of his shirt. What's that you've got there, Rick? Oh, it says, "Broncos suck!" Imagine that. "Oh, that has nothing to do with defying the code of conduct," he added quickly. "I just wear this all the time. To sleep in, even."
I spent a few minutes with a guy who was bold enough to wear a Broncos shirt to the game, and even he didn't seem fazed by the general behavior. I don't know if he was high or perhaps a few yards shy of a first down, but he kept smiling. Smiling! Right in the face of every profane pronouncement and insult to his team, his manhood and his mother, kind of like Gomer Pyle grinning away in front of a spitting-mad Sgt. Carter.
"It's what you expect at a football game, especially with the Raiders," he shouted over the steady chorus of "F--- the Broncos!"
"I've been to four Raiders games wearing this shirt. I'd say 99 percent of it is in good fun. They'll yell at you, spill your beer. Then there's that 1 percent that seriously wants to hurt you. But even that — it's all part of the package."
I asked one very tall woman wearing chain mail what she thought of the fan code of conduct. "It's bull (rhymes with spit)," she said, identifying herself as Lady Chains and managing to commit at least three code violations all at once. And proudly so. "They're saying people can't wear shirts against the other team. That's ridiculous. It's a rivalry. That's what football is all about. Sure we talk some smack, but we don't hurt anybody."
She too hugged me, and we parted ways. Go. Run free, Lady Chains! Don't let The Man shackle your rebel ways!
It is true that some people do get hurt sometimes. There were some serious fights, arrests and ejections Monday night. One bright bulb even punched a cop and started a huge brawl. So certainly, the Raiders need to quell fights and make sure rowdy fans don't throw stuff on the field. Oh, and people, please, try to hit the garbage receptacles in the parking lot, will ya? Man, it was a total trashapalooza out there when I left.
But we all have to realize Raiders fans are not going to suddenly emulate the ever kind and gentle Niners fans. Yawn. Zzzz. If people can't taunt the other team, can't drink or swear, can't behave like wild teenage boys in a locker room or hang a Bronco in effigy, then the Raiders wouldn't have any fans at all because the team currently sucks (yes, more than the Broncos) and the only reason anybody goes is for the atmosphere, such as it is, which we all know is not sushi, Dom Perignon, Bach and tuxedoes but ribs, Coronas, AC/DC and the wearing of skulls on your shoulders. It's often rude and crude and sometimes lewd. It's a commitment to petulance, baby, but if you don't like it, don't go.