Violence among fans at a football a football game is an unfortunate but common practice. It is unlikely that you could attend an NFL game without witnessing at least a verbal altercation — especially if the game is between rival teams. On Monday we showed you a pretty intense fight video that came from the Raiders-Niners preseason game over the weekend. That game was loaded with fan violence, arrests, and ejections, and people are still talking about it well into the week.
San Francisco owner Jed York has an interesting theory about why there were so many violent incidents at Candlestick Park on Saturday. Simply put, York says to blame it on the preseason.
“I think when you have a preseason game, when you don’t have your regular-season ticket holders coming to a game, I think that plays a big factor into it,” York said on KNBR via Pro Football Talk. “I think that’s another reason why the NFL is looking at, you know, trying to revamp the preseason schedule.”
Strange that an owner should propose a reason for expanding the season to 18 games, right? York’s suggestion is extremely far-fetched if you ask me. One thing I would credit the increased amount of violence to is having a Saturday night game. Saturday night football means more drinking, as the majority of people don’t have to get up for work the following morning like they would for a Sunday game. I doubt the “preseason” crowd has much to do with it.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, York has also asked the NFL to stop scheduling preseason games between the 49ers and Raiders for a while. The two teams have met in the preseason since 1967, but apparently the Niners owner believes the fan bases are too aggressive to share a stadium more often than they need to. Another stretch? Not as bad as the 18-game thing, but I’d say York is still reaching.
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