The SI issue with the picture of Warren Sapp and Rich Gannon on the cover had an article in it about how cricket hooligans and soccer hooligans do worse things than certain NFL fans. I was not particularly happy with it. It doesn't explicitly criticize cricket or soccer themselves (and doesn't brand all soccer and/or cricket fans as hooligans). But it talks about some horriffic actions taken by cricket fans in India, some Glasgow Celtic fans, and some English fans. I hope that there is someone who told this guy that MANY cricket and soccer matches go off incident free throughout the world. I went to watch matches in England and Scotland in October and saw rabid fans who did nothing bad as well as wholesome fans such as a mother and her pre-adolescent daughter who had traveled a long way to watch Everton play at West Ham. The games I saw all went off incident free. Also, the aut hor, Steve Rushin, while he does take certain NFL fans (those of the Raiders and Eagles) to task, he does not point out that while they may not be as bad as the soccer and cricket incidents, the Raider and Eagle fans are BAD ENOUGH. I don't excuse what goes on abroad - I detest it. It is a black eye on the sports I love. But don't say things like "Oh we're bad, but people abroad are worse". Frank Deford also took on the problem of hooliganism in an article - but he was more critical of stuff that was stateside, though I wan't thrilled when he compared recent stateside incidents to events at soccer games abroad. I hope that the incidents here will prompt people not to point fingers, but to explore the how and why of this problem so that we can eradicate it EVERYWHERE FOREVER. The Deford article is at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/frank_deford/news/2003/01/29/viewpoint/ The Rushin article is at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/steve_rushin/news/2003/01/21/air_and_space/ Your opinions, please?
I think the problem is American hooliganism has been swept under the rug for such a long time. I had just graduated from UMass the year they lost the final four game to Kentucky and there were riots, cars flipped, etc. My friend from Kentucky had his car windows smashed and HICK spray painted on the side of the car but the UMass and Amherst police stated the incident was a coincidence and had nothing to do with the game. When a U Cincinnati basketball player, Art Long, punched a police horse one block from campus his punishment was nothing. The local media mentioned this but it barely got press. Nothing from AM talk show hosts, nothing. After attending many games in England and seeing little, if any, violence, the problem is overblown in the US media. It seems they are willing to point out the flaws of a sixty year old moron to say things are not bad here. Finally, I did meet some hooligans in England and the mindset was different. It seems destroying property was seen as vandalous and cowardly while fighting opposing fans was as chivalrous. Personally, I find the idea of violence at a sports event idiotic.
One thing perhaps pointing out to those who say there is more violence in soccer - the number of matches played. In the short NFL season there are what, 16 games a week? There are just ever so slightly more soccer matches in the world each week than that.
If you include high school and college, and I see no reason to exclude them, the number of football games over a typical fall weekend probably runs into the thousands.
I think the difference (and where American writers feel the right to qualify their remarks) is that the football violence in Europe is often enveloped or a part of larger social evils such as racism or religious/political hatred. There is no such baggage in most of the rioting and field invasion-goal post assaults that seem to be more and more a problem at college games. And while there was/is gang affiliations w/Raiders, it never grown into European-like firms (high schools are actually the worse victims of this type of violence). I agree somewhat w/ puttputtfc. I think because it lacks a racist or religous/political edge, US media does often take a self-righteous attitude on this subject. Sadly, I think you are going to have to see a Heysel-like event in the US before we truly come to terms with our own brand of hooligans.