Football Hooliganism! Is there anything like it in North American sports?

Hockey fans!

Well, in the town of whichever team wins the National Basketball Association’s championship in June, there might be noisy sprees of high spirits (or mini-riots, take your pick), but nothing like what gets Englishmen in trouble all over Europe.

Maybe, but you can’t compare the problems in Europe (and many other parts of the Earth) with the “calmer” situation in North America.

american football fans get pretty rowdy sometimes…. not to the extent of needing barb wire fences around the field, but here’s on of the more rowdy situations I’ve seen, skip to 9 minutes if you don’t want to watch the football part of it link

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 tearing down goalposts is not kicking the shit out of each other and using weapons though is it? It’s just high spirits, only damage to property not people.

@RareDenver that’s what I’m saying. american fans get a little rowdy, you see plenty of fights tailgating and some during the game, (at least as a bills fan you do, we really hate our entire division…), but it’s not like a Manchester match.

hooligans don’t care about football. they probably don’t even know any of the names of the players. All they are interested in is causing havoc. Like skinheads.

Some of the baseball riots in Boston can be pretty scary, especially the redsocks-Yankees riots. The rivalry has kind of cooled down since redsocks won the world series… so too have the riots, but they are still there. nothing quite as extreme as what you guys have across the pond, but I have seen cars flipped (with people inside) windows broken and plenty of fist fights. It’s not really to the point that you fear for your life, but you certainly do not want to be wearing Yankees paraphernalia near Fenway stadium when a game lets out.

I was at a Bills home game once and a Steelers fan came by and said something like “Laces out Norwood!” which got him a punch in the face. Sure, you’ll get your acts of violence, but usually a 1 vs 1 level, not 30 rows of seats full of guys ready to crack some skulls. American football stadiums have adequate security to deal with the drunks, but riot squads with tear gas and shields, not necessary.

OSU fans can get pretty violent after losses, or wins haha, especially to Michigan. Anyway I do not think it is as bad as in England because “Hooligan’s” there are essentially gangs. We have gangs in the U.S. too, they just don’t fight over football haha

American Football gets bad. Lots of fights.
Hockey games are not that bad.

@Ansible1 ahahahahhahahhaha one thing you don’t want to do if poke fun at a bills fan, we take things personal. lol especially when it comes to our kickers XD

In the US they hardly ever take to the field and riot, that is done in the parking lots and streets after the games. It is especially common for riots to break out late at night when the thugs use it as an excuse to loot the stores.

daloon got here first, but Hockey fans have been known to get pretty crazy, on a pretty regular basis. perhaps it is because hockey is pretty much the only sport where fight is still allowed (you only get a “time-out” penalty)

but hockey is not ‘big’ all over the US, only in cold places.

I live in a desert, and I think i have only ever seen one hockey game! haha

Yeah besides hockey, lacrosse is the only other sport where fights are really allowed. except for those PBA guys, don’t wanna tango with those guys

@alive Having only been to one hockey game doesn’t qualify you to pass judgment on hockey fans.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic haha well just the one was scary enough!

In buffalo our hockey games have always been less rowdy than our football games. And we’re a huge hockey town. I think it’s something about the 72,000 people who have been tailgating since 9 in the morning that kind of tops out a hockey game.

@alive Must be Phoenix. ~
~ = j/k

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 We can’t riot after a hockey game, Rick Jeanneret would come and kick the crap out of all of us

Ruff would just send in his fight squad.

None of you have been to a T ball game in the Midwest, have you? The parents are vicious I tell you. Vicious!

@jonsblond yes, you have brought up a good point. My son and Hubby were both umpires in Little League, and often had to order the spectators to refrain from making noise. They can be completely out of control.

@YARNLADY It’s a good thing beer is not served at these games. I did witness a parent bring her own beer in a container once. She was a happy drunk though.

@jonsblond—It surprised me how many parents who came had been drinking. We even uncovered evidence some of the players (young teens) had also been drinking.

Here is an example of the extremes that can be experienced in US football.

I have witnessed not only the aggressive attitudes of parents involved in children’s sports. It may be an “over-protective” attitude, or it may be the parent living through the children.

@everyone

I think your responses have proved what I believed to be true.

You don’t have the same issues that the rest of the world do when it comes to what the rest of the world know as Football and you know as Soccer.

What you guys have is ‘High Spirits and Passion that sometimes leads to violence’

What the rest of us have is organised aggression where people use the sporting event as an opportunity to get together in large numbers and fight each other just for the fun of it.

They actually plan these fights weeks before the match with the leaders of each teams ‘crew’ sorting out the details of exactly where and when it will happen.

Examples are Leeds Service Crew I have the joy of living on the street where they gather at every home match

Red Army

Millwall Bushwackers

Aston Villa Hardcore

The Muckers

List of hooligan firms it’s so depressing how long the list for England is

@alive I lived in Prescott AZ and there was a minor league hockey team there, the Sundogs, so I don;t think the desert rules it out haha

@madcapper They’ve got the Coyotes too XD, well… for now at least…

@madcapper key word in your answer is “minor”

the one hockey game i saw in the desert… also minor league (team name: the scorpions! desert animals apparently don’t fare well on ice haha). ticket sales were so bad the team is no longer with us

@alive nah man the Sundogs actually won the league a year after their creation. Also it’s cold as shit in Ohio and well the Cbus Bluejackets really aren’t much in the way of hockey haha. So I am not sure it matters where it is but fan-dom is always the same… hockey being more violent :)