Yesterday, numerous well-wishers greeted the World Champion New England Patriots at Boston City Hall to celebrate the franchise’s second Super Bowl victory in three years. New England players credited the support of the Boston-area fans as the reason for their success; after all, it was the Boston-area loyalists that supported the Pats when the national media viewed them as an afterthought.
None of that seemed to matter, however, because only one thought truly mattered: would James Grabowski have been there? Grabowski, as you probably already know, was the 21-year-old who died early Monday morning after he was hit by an alledged drunk driver. This highlighted a night of mayhem on the mean streets of Boston that included flaming garbage cans at Boston University, flipped cars near Northeastern, local television station vans under siege and a hose-down of rowdy fans in Alston to disperse the crowd.
In retrospect, having such passionate fans is a gift and a curse.
Case in point: after the Red Sox defeated the Oakland A’s to advance to the ALCS against the Yankees, students at UMass-Amherst lit fires, flipped cars, and attacked university police officers. Days later, there were stories circulating locally about Yankee fans being attacked by hordes of BoSox backers after New York advanced to the World Series.
However, such activity is not limited to the Bean. After the Oakland Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII, rioters taunted and threw bottles at police, news crews and, strangely, fire department personnel responding to blazes. Philadelphia experienced a PR nightmare when 24 mounted police, 12 dog teams and 1,000 riot-helmeted officers kept the Astroturf secure after the Phillies captured the 1993 National League pennant over Atlanta, but it prevented the kind of chaos that decimated New York and Pittsburgh in previous seasons, and would cripple Detroit after the Tigers’ 1984 World Series victory.
Riots aren’t good for anybody. They’re not good for the car owners who wake up in the morning to see their vehicle upside down. They’re not good for businesses which lose customers and profits to these random acts of violence. Most importantly, they are not good for the people who often find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time and are penalized for the senseless acts of these “fans.” These “fans” are the same people who hope for local success just so they can go out and burn stuff; they are the ones that pray for a seventh game so they can pilfer a new television from Best Buy; and they are the ones that hope for another touchdown so they have a reason to punch a Panthers fan in the face.
What gets lost in all the madness is the fact that real fans don’t riot. They hang out with their friends and bask in the glory of the championship or console each other in light of a bitter defeat; they don’t go around breaking things for no reason. True fans understand the concept of the sport, and can appreciate the effort and sacrifice that the team made to advance as far as they did, regardless of the outcome. Real fans look back on the good times and bad times with emotion, but do not project those feelings to harm another individual.
If you disagree, ask James Grabowski’s family how they feel about riots. Better yet, ask them if James planned on attending yesterday’s parade.
— Evans Erilus may be reached at [email protected]. He can be heard every Friday from 3-6 p.m. on WRBB 104.9 FM’s “Dog Pound Sports Sound.”
