Good News, Everyone: The NFL Wants to Help Fix Fan Interactions

Next season, a fan who gets kicked out of an NFL stadium will have to take a class on proper stadium behavior- and generally pass a test- before they're allowed back in. The class and test is going to include things like this:

"One true-or-false question: “Every fan has a right to like any team they wish. Using abusive language towards fans who support teams you don’t like will not be tolerated.”

When we're getting into things like that- vague language like "abusive language" and policing, in a very general way, the way fans interact with each, the inside of my skull starts to itch. Obviously, I have no problem with the NFL trying to rein in violent patrons. I think the league OWES that to us. But questions like that aren't just preventing violence, they're trying to define the "right way" to be a football fan. And that's not the league's place. The NFL should handle running the best games possible, and trust its fans to understand their role.

(And yes, this blog often talks about the proper role of the fan, but that's my point- I'm just a fan, too. We can police our own as far as etiquette. Just send someone with arrest powers for the violent stuff.)

My concerns may be much ado about nothing; it may be that only violent folks have to go to these things. But I'm still not satisfied. The security guards who are supposed to spot the offenders are going to have needles-in-haystacks problems out the wazoo- assuming the offenders even ever intended to see another game in the first place. So good luck enforcing this rule in any meaningful way.

More importantly, I doubt that the violence stems from fan ignorance. Even the violent ones, in the cold light of day- or, say, the harsh florescent light of a classroom- know not to pick a fight. But the stadium is a heightened emotional environment- thousands of fans, yelling and screaming, booze is flowing like water, etc. That has a tendency to make you lose perspective, and it's going to do that even if you've sat through a lecture and pop quiz.

Unless the NFL is willing to change that environment, little classes aren't going to have any appreciable effect. And the NFL has no interest in changing that environment, just as I have no interest in telling it to do so; the heightened emotions are why we go to the stadiums in the first place. If we wanted to be cold and rational about it, we'd just crunch the stats on Monday morning.

The NFL needs to focus more on security in the stands, on actually having people who can recognize bad situations early and stepping in before they turn outright ugly. And I'm sure toning down on the culture of violence around the game can only help, too. but it needs to get out of the business of lecturing fans on their behavior right away. Let the fans decide how to be fans.

The Ones Who Remain

Peyton Manning's free agency tour is- THANK GOD- making sure ESPN doesn't have to stop talking about football for even one day. More importantly, it's reminding me that, soon enough, everything you love about your favorite team will be gone.

Well, that's a cheery thought, isn't it? But listen- Manning WAS the Colts for over 12 years. The offense ran through him, all major decisions- even financial and marketing decisions- were made with him firmly in mind. He was the face of the franchise in a way that I don't think any other NFL player could claim (Brady comes closest, but he has to share the spotlight with Belichick). If he can go, who can stay?

Everyone's going to be traded or released or even just retire eventually, and once they do, what do they matter for the team? The Browns aren't really any better off right now because they used to have Jim Brown.

So, what's permanent? What's worth rooting for over the long term, season after season? It's not the managers, either; they leave just as often as the players. Hell, when you've got a situation like the Knicks, the managers end up being LESS permanent than the star players. The front office has a little more staying power, but they're all about two bad seasons away from being swept out. The owners might be more stable- they're the ones at the top, after all, and their role on the team is decidedly not premised on health and age. It's kind of crazy that the most hated element of any team is also the longest-lasting. But even they die or sell the team or go to jail eventually. Jesus, even the Jerseys change every 20 years or so.

So, what's left? Well, the most important thing, actually- the fans. My dad has owned a New York Yankees cap and jersey longer than anyone currently on the Yankees' payroll. Given all the tickets and merchandise he's bought, he's probably contributed more to the team than A.J. Burnett, and he'll keep it up for years after the current Yankees roster retires (which, really, is coming alarmingly fast). And really, in the grand scheme of sports, my dad isn't an outlier; I can name a dozen other guys like him, and two dozen more who will be like him once they're old enough.

Any talk of dads and baseball starts to get pretty gauzy, so let's wrap this up before I cry. The fact is, fans are the permanent element, they're the ones in it for the long haul. And as such, sports policies that empower the fans become incredibly important. These can be simple things like cheaper ticket prices, or more complex, technical issues like open broadcast policies. They can even be abstract and hard to pin down, like accountable ownership and management. The point is, fans need to be actively engaged in sports, because after every trade deadline, after every post season, after every coach that's fired- the fans are still there.

A LONG WALK HOME

This afternoon, my beloved Chicago Blackhawks beat their divisional rival the St. Louis Blues 3-1. This was their first game at home after a disastrous road trip. Since that road trip started, the Hawks' record is 9-3, and the three wins have all come in the last three games.

However, there's an old adage that a team is never as good as it looks on a winning streak, nor as bad as it looks on a losing streak. I think that's what we're looking at here. The Hawks woeful run of games caused them to drop from sixth in the division...to sixth in the division. They're eleven games over .500 with 71 points. Even the goalies- who have come in for the most criticism in the 9 game skid, and most of it was deserved- are 21-14 (Crawford) and 11-7 (Emery).

This is not to say that the 9 game skid wasn't pretty bad, or that the team is destined to hoist the Cup. It's certainly not to say that Crawford and Emery are perfectly fine goalies. It's just to say that, well, the season is long, and it's made up of a lot of parts that seem really great and a lot of parts that seem really horrible, and both ends of the spectrum don't really tell you much about the season as a whole.

There's this weird bifurcation in sports, where what is actually important- the season as whole- get abstracted into a stat line while what is actually a bit more frivolous- any single regular season game- is immediate, visceral, and exciting. This works for players; they don't have to think about being 8 points back in the standings, they just have to think about the next game, the next period, the next SHIFT, even. Just start with having one good shift the next time you're on the ice, right? Worry about the shift after that when you play it.

The role of the fan- and I do think fans have a role to play in sports- can't be broken down into discrete events quite so easily. I think we fans do need to spend a little more time taking the long view, remembering previous successes (some of which may not be as long ago as it seems) and recognizing that all it takes is one game, or one goal, or just one funny hop for a losing streak to end.

I'm not saying we should avoid the excitement and joy of a single game- watch me at a game, I cheer everything, include the announcement of the raffle winners- and I'm not saying we can't criticize the team when they're mired in a losing streak. I can talk about sample sizes and flukes all day long, but something clearly went wrong during the Hawks' 9 game losing streak, and it's fair to ask if that can't be fixed before the playoffs. Let's just keep in mind that this, too, will pass.

It's an almost Obama-esque commitment to keeping your cool, staying on an even keel, and playing the long game. And that's a lot to ask for a lot of us, myself included. But it's something to aspire to, at least.