Wall St. Journal Article Claims Bills Fans are Some of the Worst Behav

[stevewin]

I've been to several stadiums and in my experience by *far* Buffalo wins hands down for having the most stupid obnoxious drunk a-hole "worst fans" - which unfortunately can overshadow the tens of thousands of "best fans" who are there also

[Buffalo_soul-dier]

Ok if you honestly think you are going to take your son who is 10 to a football game and not have him see guys drunk off their ass and hear swearing you are living in a fantasy land. Its a part of the game, not the drinking, but the inherent rowdiness. If you want better behaved sports environments the sabres offer a great one. Im not saying that a lot of people that go to the game arent out of line, but holy crap you guys act like its the apocolypse every time you go to the ralph. VNobody wants to see violence but in terms of the other stuff I have never seen anything as rowdy as you guys claim, im not saying it doenst happen, but taking personal offense to an opposing team's fan gettin heckled is pretty weak. Throwing beer i can assure does not happen nearly as often as you might think it does or want to think it does. Why? because nobody is going to waste a $9 beer on somebody they dont care about. Why dont we try to enjoy watching the game and the company of the fans aroudn us instead of trying to play police officer and monitor the nearby trials and tribulations of opposing teams' fans.

[Offside Number 76]

I've been to a few NFL stadiums. We have the best party, but we also have the biggest jerks, by far, that I've seen. And it's starting to spill over to HSBC, too, unfortunately.

[OCinBuffalo]

1. The WSJ should check the fans in their own town before they start talking smack about anybody else. I have been going to Bills games, mostly one a year, for 30 years now, and I have never, ever, seen women get harassed, grabbed, etc. But apparently this is a common practice in the Meadowlands. I have watched 3 games in Jersey and there has always been some kind of major fight around me. The last time a NYC cop happened to be sitting behind me and some !@#$ decided to chuck a battery at me, missed and hit his kid. That was the end of that. Talk about f'ing with the wrong guy! He bounced the kid's head off a seat and threw the cuffs on him, blood everywhere, but yeah, we are way worse.

 

2. I have been to 9 different stadiums to watch games and there is no way in hell that Bills fans are anywhere near as misbehaved as this article says in comparison to what I have seen. Of the 9 I'd put us someplace around 6.

 

Philly is far and away the worst place in terms of just about everything. I have seen kids getting hit with batteries, drunks throwing full beers on women and their kids, and maniacal behavior in the bathroom. It's not even close. It's like:

 

1. Philly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. NY

3.....everybody else

 

NY(Jets and Giants), Cleveland(esp. the Steelers game) and Oakland are easily worse places to watch a game in terms of drunks, fights and general BS. Baltimore is about the same as us. Chicago, SF, Tampa, and Atlanta was like being at a work social function.

 

I will give them the fact that we likes our alkihol, but there's a huge difference between being drunk, jumping up and down cheering for the team, and dropping the occasional f bomb(in my case I always apologize if prudent) ---- and drunk, swearing every other word, not even paying attention to the game, and throwing beers/batteries at kids.

[theesir]

What I find hilarious here are two things:

1). People who say, don't go to the game if you don't expect to encounter obscenely drunk, violent people, vomiting and urinating in the stands, throwing things at opposing fans and screaming obscenities at insane volumes.

2). People who say if you are subjected specifically to the behavior mentioned above, you shouldn't have shown up wearing the wrong color shirt.

 

The argument that kids/other fans/non drunks/people with some self dignity are not welcome at the stadium because the drunks rule the roost is sickening to me.

I have been to a number of other stadiums, none of which I would refuse to go back to, however, I live in Buffalo and am a former season ticket holder, yet I no longer go to games at the Ralph.

 

Your purchase of a $60 ticket, to me, does not give you or ANYONE the right to assault other people, physically or verbally, regardless of the color shirt they are wearing (as an aside how many of these RWS thugs would be up here screaming for the death penalty if a friend of theirs was injured in a "gang assualt").

You also do not have the RIGHT to piss in front of me, throw up on me or fall on top of me in the stands from 2 rows up because you are too drunk to stand.

At this point, the game itself is no longer enough motivation to counter the quality of many of the people I am there watching it with.

[BEAST MODE BABY!]

In other words, how did the author come to this conclusion?

 

Opinion? It's not like that article is a white paper or quantitative study for crying out loud.

[bills_fan_in_raleigh]

bills fans abuse each other. One of my worse memories was opening game playing Tenn in the Flutie/RJ days. Bills fans were fighting each other and throwing beer and cigs at each other as well. Bunch of flutie flakes cheered when Rj went down and out. been to many games in charlotte and yeah there are a few jerks but in most cases the behaviour is proper.

[stuckincincy]

What I find hilarious here are two things:

1). People who say, don't go to the game if you don't expect to encounter obscenely drunk, violent people, vomiting and urinating in the stands, throwing things at opposing fans and screaming obscenities at insane volumes.

2). People who say if you are subjected specifically to the behavior mentioned above, you shouldn't have shown up wearing the wrong color shirt.

 

The argument that kids/other fans/non drunks/people with some self dignity are not welcome at the stadium because the drunks rule the roost is sickening to me.

I have been to a number of other stadiums, none of which I would refuse to go back to, however, I live in Buffalo and am a former season ticket holder, yet I no longer go to games at the Ralph.

 

Your purchase of a $60 ticket, to me, does not give you or ANYONE the right to assault other people, physically or verbally, regardless of the color shirt they are wearing (as an aside how many of these RWS thugs would be up here screaming for the death penalty if a friend of theirs was injured in a "gang assualt").

You also do not have the RIGHT to piss in front of me, throw up on me or fall on top of me in the stands from 2 rows up because you are too drunk to stand.

At this point, the game itself is no longer enough motivation to counter the quality of many of the people I am there watching it with.

 

The big morning Cincy AM radio talk show host's ex-wife was from Buffalo. He attended 2 games at RWS, and the abuse heaped on him simply because he wasn't wearing the "colors" (he wasn't wearing the opponent colors) has made him rabid whenever the Bills come up in conversation.

 

Not good.

[Steely Dan]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122393578191630373.html

 

Mark Yost penned an article about how the Eagles are combating rowdy fans. One of the methods mentioned was a text message system, similar to the rowdy-fan hotline in place at the Ralph. Of course Yost takes the opportunity to slam the Bills a bit, by making it not only appear that the Bills have no such system in place (they do - the hotline), but by making the claim that Bills fans are "some of the worst-behaving fans in all of sports."

 

I would like to know by what metric we are being judged that makes us the worst. Does he simply have the opinion that we are amongst the worst? Is he basing this on arrest reports, surveys, NFL statistics? It reeks of poor research, also evidenced by the fact that he got some dates wrong too.

 

Don't get me wrong, I do think we are a rowdy bunch, but if a national publication going to assert that we are among the worst when it comes to behavior, I think t should be backed up by facts.

 

Agreed, it's called research. I guess that actually requires work.

 

 

I don't know why people care about this "problem" with out of town fans. Can't take a little abuse? Guess what? Don't come to the Ralph! How about that for advice. I've gone to Philly and I've gone to the Meadowlands (both Jets and Giants games) and I knew going in their would be verbal abuse and the like. I thought it was hilarious, yelled a little back, and smiled at all the bastards when our team scored.

 

I'm the first to admit that I treated the Pitt fans in front of me like sh-- at that finale a couple years ago, and I hope they went home and said so. The reason: Don't come back to Buffalo next time!

Obviously the drunken behavior that turns violent needs to be curbed, but I'm all for the verbal assaults. Once again, don't come to our stadium if you can't handle a little fun.

 

Great, why would Buffalo want someone coming there helping to keep the blackouts from happening, spending money in the community and leaving with a pleasant feeling about the city. I guess wearing Steelers gear is akin to committing some sort of crime.

 

If you walked into a pizza parlor and someone who was wearing Steelers gear was standing in line and you started pouring beer on them what do you think would happen? At the very least the owner would kick you out because you're costing him business and acting like an ass. If you chase away people from other cities it hurts the local economy. If you owned a business by the stadium I assure you that you wouldn't care what they were wearing as long as they paid.

 

 

Verbal abuse is fine, but when it goes over that line and drunken idiots do things like toss lit cigarettes in the direction of opposing fans or throw beer on them, that's stupid. Too many times I've seen that kinda crap @ Bills games.

 

If someone wants to verbally tease my wife (a Bills season ticket holder, by the way) when she attends Bills games in her Steeler gear, that's okay. I don't recommend it going any further than that though.

 

That's all it should ever be. People should treat them like guests. Guests to make fun of but not to assault.

 

Opinion? It's not like that article is a white paper or quantitative study for crying out loud.

 

If I write that Topeka Kansas is home to the most number of con men in the United States I should have some stats to back it up. It's not out of the question to ask for journalistic integrity.

 

I went to the stadium in Baltimore and it was nothing like the Ralph. I tailgated with my sister and brother in law and I didn't wear a lot of Bills gear because I expected it to be like the Ralph but it was an environment much different than the Ralph. It actually seemed like an event that everyone was welcome to attend.

[Buffalo_soul-dier]

I was offered pretty good tix for the jets bills game in nj this year. I would have paid a little less than face but i turned them down. I turned them down because i dont know how not to be rowdy for the bills and from my experience that only leads to getting into fights and having stuff thrown at you at jets games. So dont be a dumba*s and think people get rowdy because tickets to games at the ralph are cheap. People are rowdy because they are passionate about their team. In dallas they show how passionate they are with checkbooks shelling out 10k to reserve a seat. In buffalo we do it by being as obnoxious and rowdy as we can be, even if visiting fans or others take it personally

[GripnRip]

I wear the designation "Worst Behaving Fans" with honor. Its been over a decade since our team has shown any sustained pride or swagger, at least our fans always do.

[lets_go_bills]

Has it ever occurred to any of you that we have the best tailgating, so naturally we are gonna be a little drunk and misbehave. Drinking beer for hours usually leads to this. Sort of a double-edged sword. We love our team and party all day in the spirit of the game, rocking our Bills gear. I don't condone the bad behaviour, but we're just having fun. Game day is exciting as hell.

[Kelso_Helmet]

The saddest part is the lack of creativity and intelligence demonstrated in the verbal abuse at most football stadiums...and yes, the Ralph included.

 

I've been to Bills' games at the Meadowlands, DC, New England, Miami, San Fran, and Baltimore...and 99.9999% of the time, the extent of the confrontational heckling is "Buffalo Sucks," "You Suck," "You're Gay," "Wide Right," or "Go Back to Buffalo." It's rare that someone puts any thought into it.

 

I personally love the give and take in the stands with opposing fans, if it's with worthy adversaries and everyone is cool at the end of the game.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Baltimore is somewhat tame. They are probably what the NFL would like to see in crowd control and in-game atmosphere. Loud but not very boorish.

 

[Flutie Flakes]

I really could care less about the Wall St. Journal article and for that matter, the media as a whole. Most writers do little in the way of researching their subject and the jack that penned this story is no different.

 

As many have said previously, I too have visited other stadiums. IMO, Oakland, Los Angeles (when Raiders played at the Coliseum) and New York (Jets) are far worse than Buffalo. There were several stabbings and one death at a Raiders/Green Bay game I attended in LA (GB fan got mouthy in the parking lot and got jacked and stabbed to death). Have never heard of any stabbings, shootings, muggings at the Ralph. A few fights now and then but overall, it is just people tailgating and having a good time.

 

In the stadium, I have never had any issues with other Bills fans. It is usually the @$$ from fans visiting (especially when New England comes to town) where the issues occur. In the section where I sit, the season ticket holders around us sell most of their seats on e-bay, so you never know who is going to be sitting around you.

 

On bringing kids, maybe to a pre-season game or seats in the family section.

[manateefan]

I've been to a dozen, including Philly last year. I took a lot of abuse tailgating in my Bills jersey and walking around outside the stadium, but once inside, practically nothing. It doesn't hurt that the place is crawling with security. I also went to Foxboro, which has a bad rep, and not much there either.

 

I would say the Ralph is the worst because the fans drink the most. Maybe it's a side effect of having the best tailgating, but it needs to be controlled.

 

Best fans were definitely Pittsburgh and Green Bay.

 

When we went to Cincinnati (playoff game) and got our butts beat, there was some good-natured ribbing (yes, we were wearing Bills colors) and we gave it right back. Then they offered us a shot out of their flasks and said Buffalo was going to be a team to beat in the future.

 

They were right. A couple years later Buffalo started their Super Bowl run.

 

Haven't been to any sporting event since where the fans were that "sporting".

[Spun]

Most of us posters neither take nor deliver the hits on field. You get all ****faced and think your weekend off makes you entitled to think and act like you are a somebody. Get over yourselves. Get some class and watch the game. Drunks, you have problems, big problems. Imagine yourself as a kid not being able to attend and enjoy a game. Don't be so selfish. You are just another fan. The Bills franchise has enough enemies especially those wanting to rip the franchise out of Buffalo. Don't be a reason for losing our team. Passion does not mean being a drunken, rude *******.

[Buffalo_soul-dier]

Most of us posters neither take nor deliver the hits on field. You get all ****faced and think your weekend off makes you entitled to think and act like you are a somebody. Get over yourselves. Get some class and watch the game. Drunks, you have problems, big problems. Imagine yourself as a kid not being able to attend and enjoy a game. Don't be so selfish. You are just another fan. The Bills franchise has enough enemies especially those wanting to rip the franchise out of Buffalo. Don't be a reason for losing our team. Passion does not mean being a drunken, rude *******.

 

So getting drunk at a football is now immoral and classless?! well sh*t i guess half of america is the anti-christ now

[murra]

Best fans were definitely Pittsburgh and Green Bay.

 

[murra]

Most of us posters neither take nor deliver the hits on field. You get all ****faced and think your weekend off makes you entitled to think and act like you are a somebody. Get over yourselves. Get some class and watch the game. Drunks, you have problems, big problems. Imagine yourself as a kid not being able to attend and enjoy a game. Don't be so selfish. You are just another fan. The Bills franchise has enough enemies especially those wanting to rip the franchise out of Buffalo. Don't be a reason for losing our team. Passion does not mean being a drunken, rude *******.

 

Yeah, and maybe your avatar is not much better. The Sabres franchised is jinxed as it is. Don't be a reason for not winning the cup. Passion does not mean avoiding all obvious and blatant rules of superstition.