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Health & Fitness

Bryan Stow's Case: Is Uncivilized Behavior Becoming the Norm?

Giants fan Bryan Stow was brutally attacked at a Dodgers game in April. Was it simply a random act of violence or an sign that sporting events are becoming catalysts for barbaric behavior?

There was a day when the worst that happened at a baseball game was that a frustrated Little League dad got rowdy with an umpire. Today, violence and abuse surrounding sporting events seem to have escalated at sporting events of all kinds.

If Bryan Stow isn’t a household name now, he should be, at least in Northern California. Bryan is the Giants fan who was after a game at Dodgers Stadium a few months ago, beaten so viciously he remains in a coma with severe brain damage.

Doctors don’t know if he’ll ever wake up and if he does, what he’ll be like.

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Turns out Bryan was a whose job involved helping people. Now, people are helping him. Donations are being made to help with medical bills and to support his two children. are being held all over the Bay area. His family set up a website for updates on his medical condition and for donations. Patch.com also covers some of these .

A suspect has been , although no charges have been filed. He’s being held on a parole violation while law enforcement looks for physical evidence that can be used to charge him.

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Here’s the thing about sporting events: the very passion that makes for a good fan can easily turn dark and violent. It's a fine line.

Now, it could very well be that whomever beat Bryan Stow was just a do-badder looking for any excuse to kick somebody repeatedly in the head.

It’s been rumored for years that Dodgers fans will “ride” or “insult” fans wearing opposing colors, but I could still accept that the attack on Bryan Stow might not have had anything to do with sports. Sports was perhaps just the excuse.

I can also accept a little good-natured teasing among fans. But the line is being crossed too often, in my opinion.  Here’s comment on a blog post I read last month:

“I was at Wednesday’s game with 3 of my dodger fan friends. I was wearing a black sf shirt and hat. A guy behind me was making coma jokes for the first three innings and still after I told him to shut the **** up and that Bryan’s kids are still waiting for their daddy to come out of a coma. Like a foul ball would go into the stands, he would say, “I hope that hits a Giants fan and it puts him in a coma” etc. etc.”  (sic)

Who would say something like that? What causes such unsportsmanlike behavior among fans of a supposedly wholesome sport that is known as America’s favorite past-time?

Perhaps you’re thinking a person like that is just an ignorant jerk. But then this, from a column written by a reporter in Pennsylvania:

“Maybe someone can ask Stow, if he ever comes out of his coma, why he thought it was a good idea to wear Giants’ gear to a Dodgers’ home opener when there was a history of out-of-control drunkenness and arrests at that event going back several years.”**

What? We’re to blame a sports fan for his own beating?  Because he wore his team’s colors? I’m surprised the reporter didn’t ask why Bryan Stow chose to attend the game at all.

But I don’t know. Maybe attending Dodgers’ games is like walking unarmed toward a group of gang members ready for a rumble. Maybe spectators should be banned completely from Dodgers Stadium.

Something seems to have gone badly awry when what used to be good-natured fan joshing can become something malicious and barbaric. Or when a fan risks his life by wearing his team colors in the opposing team’s stadium. Or even by attending a game.

I have no answers. I don’t know how we got to this ugly place. I just know we have to change it.

I’ll be at a Giants game in San Francisco next week. It’s my home turf, so I don’t feel that I am at risk.  But I will be thinking about Bryan Stow, as I do every day, and praying for a miracle. And also praying that this slow ebb toward normalizing uncivilized behavior in sports and society at large somehow, some way, turns around.

Visit www.support4bryanstow.com/ for updates on his condition, a fundraiser calendar and to make a donation.

Carol Cassara blogs daily at www.middle-aged-diva.blogspot.com

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