In Sunday's 49ers-Arizona Cardinals game, the Cards' Calais Campbell was injured in the fourth quarter and a stretcher was on the field. After experiencing "extreme numbness", according to some of his fellow players, Campbell was able to move all of his lower extremities. He was taken to a local hospital. (He's OK).As Campbell lay on the field motionless several in the crowd began doing the wave.
On KNBR radio, 49ers play-by-play broadcaster, Ted Robinson, was outraged. Robinson emotionally called out the SF fans and was adamant, "Hey, people STOP IT--stop doing the wave!"
It was honest and forthright. It was also something extraordinarily appropriate in a day when this type of behavior might have been ignored by the local radio crew.
Robinson did the right thing calling out thousands of oblivious numbskulls who appeared to be brain-dead at the moment. He wasn't alone. Several 49ers players motioned for the crowd to stop the wave shenanigans.
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The 49ers players were also telling the crowds to stop doing the wave, too. How drunk does one have to be to not care about injured players?
ReplyDeleteWave started before the injury.
ReplyDeletePlayer on the field held up play for 10+ minutes. Wave picked up momentum with the now bored fans.
Not an insensitivity thing, just fans not knowing what was occurring on field.
Classy move by Snyder, Gore and Vernon Davis to try to quell the wave.
It's not an insensitivity thing, it's a stupidity thing.
DeleteThey don't even know what is occurring on the field when the plays are being run. And of course they were bored. You can't expect a person with a 10 second attention span to focus for 10+ minutes.
>Not an insensitivity thing, just fans not knowing what was occurring on field.
ReplyDeleteYou had to be drunk or stupid not to notice something was seriously wrong. The player was motionless for several minutes. Players from both teams were crowding around near the injured player, not to mention seeing trainers and doctors on the field. Then to see the cart moving on the field only to be waved off in favor of a gurney. What about all of this that does not say "SERIOUS INJURY?" Bored fans? Aww what a shame. Go home if you're that bored. Glad to hear Ted Robinson was telling the fans to stop it.
Par for the course at the shtick.
ReplyDeleteDamon Bruce when I flipped on his show today mentioned this and said that the new stadium will be good because it will price out the riff-raff that have taken over the fanbase. Back to the wine and cheese crowd and some are upset over that. I say good. Price these idiots out. The same idiots that weren't here 15 years ago...whether living or in the country.
ReplyDeleteSo the wannabe sports authority Bruce is also an elitist?!
DeleteThose wine and cheese folks wouldn't have done the wave yesterday. They would have been too busy playing with their portable electronic devices, and fixating on their desire to be "seen."
Dude, don't fool yourself...These yahoos "will" show up at the 49er games in Santa Clara..
DeleteRemember that was Jed York's main reason for moving the stadium to the South Bay, was that the majority of his fanbase lives in Santa Clara County, & the Central Valley! And guess what...a lot of them are STH, and are going to Levi Stadium...LOL!
7:17
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly concur! I stopped buying season tix 11-years ago...because of all the riff-raff. Now that the prices will be out of reach for those morons, I will be buying a pair of season tix for me and my wife. Money is not an issue (I can afford it). Yeah, you can mock me as being one of the "wine-and-cheese" crowd (I'm really not--I don't like wine...preferring hot dogs and a coke..or grilled Brats if we tailgate). I don't care. I really hated my last two years of being a season ticket holder.
Going to Niners games will be fun again!
Amen.
DeleteLove the unanimous condemnation by Rich's readers! Jed York made his disdain equally clear via Twitter, as did many of his season-ticket holding followers. I told one in Fremont that the Wave has been sheer idiocy since Krazy George left the scene decades ago. Yep, the knuckleheads that started it either had a few too many or not enough tight screws in their pea-sized brains. Love Ted's call and everyone else's here on Rich's page! If fans get that bored too easily, they should never be on any sports premises let alone an NFL stadium! There are a disgrace to ticket buyers let alone sports and society!
ReplyDeleteYell la migra over the loudspeakers and see how fast that stadium empties.
ReplyDeleteOr just tarp the cheap seats like the teams across the bay.
DeleteThe reason we gave up our season tickets: the crowd at Candlestick: gang colors, violence/fights, threats of violence, drug use, cigarette smoke, and otherwise rude behavior. We watch on our big screen and have much more fun. New 49ers stadium? Will try it, but like being at home much better.
ReplyDeleteLying motionless for several moments is scary.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I highly recommend watching a documentary currently on PBS called "League of Denial" about the NFL's attempts to hide their knowledge of brain disease in retired players.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-of-denial/
Set your Tivo to catch a rerun of it. It's worth it.
I agree with that recommendation.
DeleteConcussions are also a problem in other team sports. Hockey, especially with the designated "fighters"/goons; soccer, with the numerous "headers"; and even baseball, with catchers at high risk due the number of foul tips that find their masks. Current Cardinal manager Mike Matheny and Eliezer Alfonzo are a couple of former Giants catchers who experienced post concussive symptoms in their SF days.
While there are a lot of older 49er fans still in the stands from the early days at Candlestick and some even stretching back to the 1950s and 60s at Kezar Stadium, fan bases for all teams unfortunately change over the years.
ReplyDeleteJust look across the bridge at the Raiders' crowd. They used to have a solid, hard core Northern California following, and were liked by many fans out of the area. They added to their fan base and created the 'Raider Nation' when they moved to LA and were skillfully marketed by Amy Trask, Al Davis' right hand person in the business office. But they were never followed quite as passionately (nation-wide and world wide), then when after they made the unfortunate decision to move to LA for 13 years.
During that time, a whole new generation of Northern California football fans grew up following the amazing exploits of the Niners in the 1980s and 90s. Interesting to not that the Raiders left the season after the Niners won their first Superbowl (1981), and returned in 1995 to the east bay, just one year after the Niners won their last Superbowl.
I went to a Washington Capitols home playoff game against the Boston Bruins in 1990, and a Bruin got hurt and was on the ice for 5 minutes. The crowd applauded. Totally classless, and a sign of a serious problem society has with empathy.
ReplyDelete