By Christina Abt
Buffalo, NY – Now that Super Bowl Extra Large has come and gone, it's time for we Buffalo Bills fans to get back to the business at hand---the upcoming 2006 season.
Recently, I wrote a newspaper column on that very topic. In it I suggested that the 12th Man has become one of the major problems that the Buffalo Bills Organization faces today. My basic point was that as fan's have become an integral part of the Buffalo Bills experience they have somehow crossed over from the realm of intensely supportive, to insanely addicted. And through their often aggressive and obnoxious game day behavior, they are destroying the very institution that has served as a meaningful part of Western New York life for more than 45 years.
My column ended up circulating around the nation via the World Wide Web and also as a posting on a number of Bills fan websites. What I learned from the many letters and emails I received in response was that my take on the 12th Man was an unfair across the board characterization of those fans who attend the games for the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, as opposed to an excuse to drink, fight and swear in a public setting.
So today I would like to offer my sincere apologies to all Buffalo Bills Fans who I unjustly categorized and offended in my across the board statement that the 12th Man is one of the main problems ruining the tradition of Bills games, and giving The Ralph a nasty reputation around the NFL.
While I still stand by my assessment that drunken and disruptive fans are currently the bane of Ralph Wilson Stadium. I realize now that it was unfair to paint all Bills supporters with that same insurgent brush.
All that being said, I found the many responses to my Bills column, particularly from readers around Western New York, fascinating, informative, angry, and in a few cases disturbing. And they also pretty much focused on one common theme: whether I have ever attended a game in another stadium. The point of that question being that the level of rowdy, drunken, anti-social behavior that I pinpointed at The Ralph exists in stadiums across the United States, so what's the big deal?
My response to that question is whether I have attended a game anywhere else is irrelevant. What does matter is the fact that in recent years so many Bills Fans have become more than happy to lower their standards of acceptable game day behavior to a disruptive, disgusting and, on occasion, violent level. And one of the excuses for this inappropriate behavior seems to be that fans in other stadiums are equally as nasty.
However, if comparison logic is the means of justification on this issue, let's for a moment consider the realm of The Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL Carolina Panthers. The stadium functions like Ralph Wilson in many ways. People tail gate before the games. Fans cannot bring alcoholic beverages inside the stadium. Beer is sold in the stadium until the end of the third quarter.
However, here is where the two differ. In order to enter and/or remain in the Panthers Stadium you must be sober and fully dressed when walking through the gates. Anytime you ignore either of those conditions, you are immediately rejected or ejected. And that goes for any fan on any sunny hot North Carolina Sunday who decides to take off his or her shirt. Even in the endzone or the upper deck.
Further, according to Panthers stadium policy, any fan heard swearing will be ejected. That's right, one loudly ranted f-word laden blue streak and you're out of there. No questions asked. No excuses accepted. And from all indications, Panther fans not only accept these rules, they also respect them.
So if that type of NFL fan experience exists, why is it that we in Buffalo are so dedicated to accepting and associating ourselves with drunken, aggressive, and offensive behavior that is basically ruining the game for so many? Why instead aren't we focused on trying to develop a reputation within our community, and around the nation, like that in North Carolina where fans of all ages and interest levels can enjoy the game without fear of drunken, aggressive, and abusive behavior from those around them?
It's a tough mirror to hold up. But if each Buffalo Bills fan would willingly take a long, sober look at what has become a very nasty collective reflection and then individually decide to raise the behavioral bar (no pun intended!), then perhaps in 2006, Ralph Wilson Stadium can again become the home that so many fans have been forced to leave.
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