Fans Who Go Too Far

With every sport comes fans who are passionate about the game and its players. The best part about going to a Flames game as opposed to watching it on TV, is the atmosphere that is created. Seeing everyone wearing red and cheering loudly demonstrates Calgary's commitment to our team. Lucky we haven't been a part of any remotely dangerous riots. Calgary's place in the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs brought upon the Red Mile that mainly involved nudity; relatively harmless compared to what other places around the world do to show their compassion.

Just today a soccer match in Egypt resulted in the death of 74 fans, and hundreds of others injured. Fans of the 'away' team became violent towards the 'home' team creating absolute chaos. Rocks, sticks, bottles and fireworks were being thrown amongst the crowd and the eventual burning of the bleachers was what caused most of the injuries. The lack of security and superiority police have over their citizens in these "2nd world" countries is what leads to violent outrages. 

This being said, the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riots resulted in many injuries and crime. After Boston beat Vancouver in game seven, angry fans began setting cars on fire and vandalizing the streets. Luckily most of the people involved in the riot were arrested, or turned themselves in after their faces were posted in pictures on the internet. 

A social psychologist monitored the events resulting from Vancouver's loss and seemed to have some understanding for the reasoning behind it. A loss for your team can feel like an attack on your identity, since we are so supportive of them. We feel a sense of community as fans and a loss can be taken more personally for some. More often the riots that occur in the world happen in places like Egypt simply because it's how that country expresses its passion. The riots associated with sports in Egypt are alike the riots they have over politics.

I still don't really know why people feel the need to act violently in response to the score of a game. At the end of the day, acting out isn't going to change the numbers on the scoreboard.