Originally Posted by
MikesNephew 
I went to the Bears Broncos game in Denver yesterday. It was a good defensive game, but it got a little boring with the score remaining at 0-0. When the Bears blocked a field goal and then scored their 10 points, the Denver "fans", and I use that word very loosely, became rather hateful and started to accost Bears fans by throwing beers, peanuts, coins, and whatever. They started the day off booing when the Bears came out onto the field, and then continued to boo every time the Bears made a good play, points, or any other move that was a good thing for the Bears. When they tackled a player on the Broncos, half the crowd would jump up calling for a penalty as if it was against the rules to touch the opposing team. When the Bears got lazy and laid back on their very small lead, and then allowed Denver about 9 minutes to catch up, the Denver fans became boastful and apparently a surge in their adrenaline caused them to desire to fight. I've seen fights at games and realize often they are due to two opposing team fans talking way too much and being jerks about what they were saying. But to have what appeared to be the entire Denver fan base become one giant asshole was disturbing. I had two guys in front of me that would turn around and tell me they were going to kick my old wrinkled ass just like the Broncos were doing to the Bears. I reminded them that the game was on the field, and my wearing of a jacket did not make me responsible for the actions on the field. That worked. At the end of the game though, they both got within 2 inches of my face with such friendly tidbits as , "What? What you gonna do MF? You want to stick up for your team now?" Then another three guys a few seats over decided they needed some of that and started with threats about kicking my ass or pushing me down the stairs on the way out. What the hell!? Why? It is after all, just a game isn't it? Their team won, so why do they feel it is necessary to beat someone up? Riot mentality. On the way out of the stadium at a snail's pace, I was confronted no less than 5 times, including a group of 5 young guys who said, "Take that Bears shit off MF or we will tear it off, kick your ass, and then burn it." There just happened to be a cop right there who told the boys to move along or go to jail. A young guy wearing a Bears jacket overheard it and told me he had been the victim of three guys throwing beers on him as well as peanuts and nickels. The security guards saw it happening and they ran up in a large group as if they were running into battle. Guess who they escorted out of the seats? Yep, the Bears fan. They told him it was for his safety. He protested that he flew in from Chicago to watch a game and they were keeping him from doing that. So they explained they wanted him to look at videos to pick out the htree guys so they could go back and arrest them. I doubt that ever happened. The kid said he got to watch the rest of the game, but they wouldn't let him go back to his paid for seats.
Anyway, I understand a little back and forth teasing between opposing fans, but as a whole, the Denver fans were hateful as hell and threatening as well. I actually considered taking off my Bears clothing on the walk out to the bus just because of the threats. When we got to the bus, some lady said, "WTF? Everywhere I looked there were people in Bears shit. Who the hell do they think they are coming into my stadium? This is our house and no Bears wearing MFs should be allowed." Then she turned it all toward me and asked me who I thought I was coming into her house? I asked her what a game would be like if only one team was there and the whole stadium was just that team's fans. She said that would be a lot better than letting Bears wearing MFs in their stadium. Obviously she was not the right person for the job as spokesman, but she was one of those oud people who wanted to make sure everybody knew how tough she was. I wanted to go off on her, but I believe in good sportsmanship, so I bit my tongue and sat down. If I had to score the Denver fans on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst and ten being superfans, I would rate them as about a two. They truly were as a whole, dirty, mean, and nasty people. I can only hope that if I had been at Soldier Field something like this would never have happened. Being confronted a total of nine times for simply wearing a Bears jacket seems very wrong to me. I don't drink because I take medication that won't allow it, so I am not under the influence of liquid stupidity as a fan. I also don't believe in booing, I sing the National Anthem at the presenting of the flag, I cheer good plays by either team (except Packer plays), and I'll even high five an opposing fan if he offers it up, even if he thinks he's somehow hurting my feelings or tweaking me. So I am a god fan. I grew up in the 50s & 60s and think everybody learned good sportsmanship like I did. I was taught to never boo, that it is the worst of sportsmanship, and I taught my kids and all of the kids I coached as a little league coach. So when I heard the guy in front of me, who had brought his 7 year old daughter to her first game, tell her to boo as loud as she could every time the Bears did anything, I was kind of pissed off. I asked him why he would teach her to do that. He said it was a Bronco tradition and there was nothing wrong with it. I told him one day his daughter was going to be in trouble for booing at school or whatever, and then he would need to think a little bit about it. He said it was just a game and booing was not a big deal. I looked at the little girl and told her he shouldn't boo because it was rude and bad sportsmanship. So later on when the temperature dropped to about 30 degrees and I saw she only had on a hoody, I offered her a blanket. I even said she could keep it if she wanted to. Her dad said, "No, she's fine. She doesn't take anything from a Bears fan." I looked at her and asked her if she was cold, She was shivering and said she was, but her asshole, "It's just a game." bad sport father said no, she wasn't about to take anything from a Bears fan. She was obviously wanting the blanket, but her dad was pissed because the Broncos were behind in score, and he was apparently going to hurt me by punishing his little girl. What a jerk! I hope, as they left in about the middle of the 4th quarter, probably because the poor little thing was frozen to the bone, that she saw me as being a good sport and picked up on the fact that her dad was a bad sport and a butthole, and that she'll go home to mom and ask if it really is okay to boo. I hope her mom has her head screwed on right. I also hope that instead of people seeing me as an old fart who just doesn't get that booing is okay, will instead think that maybe they need to check themself and look into sportsmanship. Look it up by Googling, "booing at a football game" and note that in France they stop the game if people boo duuring the anthem, the articles are basically saying that booing at games is wrong, and that when the US Soccer team was booed in Mexico it was almost considered an international incident. So think about it. If booing becomes a "tradition", have we decided as a people that sportsmanship doesn't mean anything? I sure hope not.
