Wait! There was a riot in Oakland again!? Cars flipped and burned, 23 arrested, riot cops with rubber bullets. This happened last week when they won and this week when they lost! And cnnsi is putting a positive spin on the story too!! If this was after an MLS game the sport would be demonized coast-to-coast, but for pointy ball it is all in good fun.... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2003/playoffs/news/2003/01/26/oakland_unrest_ap/
"I drove an hour and a half just to be with my family," said a Raider fan who insists on going by the name of Gorilla Rilla. "We are a Raider family." For the team's first trip to the Super Bowl in almost two decades, Ricky's owner brought in a 20-foot, high-definition television and added a $25 cover charge. Some fans made sure they arrived in time. Dennis Giovanetti said he showed up at Ricky's at 7 a.m. to make sure he could get a prime seat. "My breakfast was reading the paper," he said. "I couldn't be here early enough." help these people...please..
Okay I'm going to set aside what the thread is about for a second and respond to Kryp's post: What on earth is wrong with any of what you quoted? I think it's great that fans get so pumped about a game that they get there a 7:00am to get a good seat and that bars shell out that kind of cash for their customers. Why is that a bad or even rediculous thing? You should know more than most people here that the Columbus Crew opend their gates and brought in wide-screen televisions so people could watch the sport that they love in the wee hours of the night in a country on the other side of the globe! And what about your Buckeyes? You yourself went to the party at the stadium in freezing cold tempuratures to celebrate a game that ended three games previous, right? I think those things are awesome. I'd love to have the fans of the teams I support have that much dedication that they'd come out in droves to cheer on a victory or get up at 7:00 in the morning to see a game that isn't even on till 6:30pm. I just don't see why these people need help anymore than the fans of any other city. These are great fans. Sure some of them are horrible fans that riot and loot, but you'll have that in a lot of places. And they really are the minority here. Most people just love the game and love their team.
Words that American sports media routinely apply to soccer that they'll NEVER apply to the NFL: "American football is just an excuse to riot." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap_on_sp_fo_ne/fbn_super_bowl_raiders_fans_2
OK, I'll help them as soon as I help all the soccer geeks who stayed up all night for a month straight to watch the World Cup. Deal?
Thers' been no mass death toll yet from an NFL game. At least not yet. They came close when they apparently torched a McDonalds. I wouldn't say that the media would put something out like that just to soccer. You should see some of the NHL riots that happened.
Oakland fans have been trip'n like that since the 70s, all my friends and i expected it to go off like that win or lose, that's how Raider fans are, and they will always be like that.IMO, i wouldn't call sunday a riot , more like a bunch of kids causing mayhem.
riot, n. 1. A wild or turbulent disturbance created by a large number of people. 2. Law. A violent disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled for a common purpose.