THE DANGERS OF BEING A HARD CORE FOOTBALL FAN

This story apparently first appeared over three months ago, but I must have missed it in the NFL Buffalo Bills fury that takes over every Bills fan. It's at that point where Bills fans think they're team has a good shot at a winning record...

Anyway, there have been reports and stories on how fans are brutal to one another, or to football players and their personal possessions. Apparently there was a terrible fan-to-fan combat that took place in Chicago. When I think of the Bears, I don't think that their ultimate rival is the Pittsburgh Steelers. I thought the biggest rivals were the teams who were in the same division, so this would mean the Vikings, Packers and the Lions are Chicago's biggest rivals. To me, this makes the most sense. But okay.

So the fan vs. fan violence occurred in a Chicago bar following the Bear's win on Sept. 20th against the Steelers. Apparently what happened was a Chicago fan offered an alcoholic drink to a Steelers fan and the all hell broke loose for the Steelers fan. "After drinking alcohol that was allegedly offered by a Bears fan, Heddinger blacked out and later went into cardiac arrest while being rushed by ambulance to an emergency room. Heddinger eventually went blind, and doctors began to suspect he had been poisoned with some form of toxic grain alcohol."

First rule: never go to a bar where the other team's fans are more prevalent than your own fan base. Understandably, when being the visitor in the city of the other team, it is hard to find a bar that would satisfy this requirement. Personally, if I was a fan of a team that just lost, and was in their home town, I probably wouldn't want to go to a bar. Although I might want a drink as a result of the game (which occurs a lot as a Buffalo Bills fan), I wouldn't want to go near a place where the other team's fans would be congregated in big numbers. Why would you want to put yourself into that situation? All that aggravation doesn't seem worth it to me. Let's look at some more details of this fan-to-fan combat:

"Not long after taking the drink, Heddinger blacked out and was rushed to the hospital. Along the way, his heart stopped several times and paramedics had to resuscitate him. Initially, doctors thought it was merely a case of a fan drinking himself to the brink of death, but after further tests and Heddinger’s ensuing blindness, they suspected a type of extremely toxic grain alcohol."

Well, if this Steelers fan was, let's say, a Detroit Lion's fan, I bet the "drinking himself to the brink of death" would have been a conscious and willing decision. But getting back on topic, who thinks of giving someone they dislike some type of grain alcohol? Who brings that with them, knowing that they could give it to someone who would piss them off? Some people are seriously not right in the head.

And finally, here is the kicker of the story: “… One of the Chicago guys bought a drink for one of Zack’s companions, who was the one who was really engaged in the argument with [the Chicago fans]. This guy declined it, and Zack, trying to be the peacemaker, said ‘Oh, I’ll take it.’ He drank it, and that’s the only thing that distinguished him through the night from the other [Pittsburgh fans] who were not similarly affected.”

So the poor sap that took the drink wasn't even the original target! So let's learn our lesson from this story: don't start trash talking at a bar in a foreign town with townies who are serious about their team. Stay at the hotel and drink there.

Jaclyn Kahn