Snowballs in Hell : Pro football fans’ outrage in the stands leads to a barrage, 15 arrests and 15 injuries

It was behavior you might expect from children, certainly not teachers, lawyers, stockbrokers and firefighters. But there they were, football fans at last Saturday’s game between the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers, hurling snowballs onto the field at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. This wasn’t fun; this was violence. Sid Brooks, 60, the Chargers’ equipment manager, was knocked out by an ice ball. Fifteen people were injured, 15 arrested and 175 ejected.

National Football League officials should have forced the Giants to forfeit the game. It’s time to get tough. Violence among sports fans has been rising. In one case Oakland Raider fans angered by ticket foul-ups brandished guns, threw chairs and threatened the staff. Last summer, the Dodgers had to forfeit a game because fans at Dodger Stadium threw baseballs (it was Ball Day) onto the field. Then there was the drunken Raider fan who beat a Pittsburgh Steeler fan unconscious during a 1990 game at the Coliseum. He served only a brief jail term.

After Saturday’s incident, which occurred as the Giants were losing in the team’s final game of the season, the club management acted immediately to get the message out that stupid fan behavior will not be tolerated. The team offered a $1,000 reward for the identity of the man flinging an ice ball in the photograph displayed here; the first 15 callers all identified the man by name.

Abuse a privilege, lose it. It is as simple as that. Of the 175 ejected fans, 75 held the stubs of season tickets. The club intends to revoke those season seats. Giant tickets are prized, often passed on in wills. The waiting list for season tickets is 20,000 names long.

Next Monday, on New Year’s Day, TV viewers and stadium fans will be gathering for the biggest day in college football, the bowl games. We hope to see civility among the hundreds of thousands of fans at the games. Maybe the fans of pro football can learn something about sportsmanship.