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Blue and Gold

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waterfield
You know-I keep repeating this mantra but I never saw behavior like that portrayed in your attached photo growing up and watching the Rams at the Coliseum. And if you google those games you won't see it either. What's important to me is the sociological question: Why? What has happened over the years to cause this in your face behavior. I see it everywhere-not just at football games. I see it on message boards like this , I see it on the roads, I see it in movies, I have a friend who has a simple answer to most problems: far too many people.But for sure football stadiums are not a model of civility.

but that's a larger question I have no answer for. The trash talk, the online trash talk, this and that.

I am more concerned the attitudes of some here. I wonder if The Herd got a bunch of seats in a away town, say 20 of us and there were a couple who couldn't make it so they sold them to some fans of the home team

then Todd Gurley scores a TD and sees all the Rams jerseys and leaps into our little section and maybe Watkins and Goff join in and Gurley gets shoved down by a let's call it a Cowboys fan...would we think Gurley was stupid, and Watkins and Goff because we were in Dallas and the stands was the "domain" of the fans...

please.

So, to connect the two things, the incivility you talk about is reflected into the attitudes of a few here. They arethe ones calling for Long's actions to be an assault or "he should have known better"

We are them, the ones you mention in your post...the uncivilized.

B and G, I know I should let this go, but I can't.

Again-- I agree with your "overall" spirit of your posts. I, too, lament the general incivility of our society, the boorishness, the random hatred. And I, too, share your respect for Chris Long as a human being--- I still remember when Long spent an entire week as an "undercover homeless guy" along with William Hayes, and my respect for him has been sky-high ever since..

But I just can't shake what my eyes tell me when I watch that video.

What I see is Chris Long jumping into the face of a guy wearing a number 29 Rams jersey. The guy clearly looks flustered, he hates it, he awkwardly throws up his hands to defend himself, and then falls over backward into his seat.

I see the guy in the #30 jersey (next to 29) pushing Long back onto the field. (Not saying he was necessarily "protecting" the guy in the #29 jersey.) Then the guy in the #30 jersey kinda laughs it off with his buddy, heh-heh, like it's no big deal, as if to say, "If you jump all up in our face, we'll push you back." Number 30 wasn't angry at this point, he was willing to shrug it off as no big deal. [ Also important-- #30 did this from far away with one hand on Long's shoulder-- it was a "symbolic" shove, certainly not a violent and forceful one.]

Then Chris Long goes ballistic. He is absolutely furious, pointing at #30 over and over, screaming hateful things. I wish I was a lip-reader, but it sure looks like he was threatening the guy, saying "I'll remember you, Mother @%2!!" or something like that.

Then, and only then, does the #30 jersey dude give long the finger-- in RETALIATION for Long spewing hateful and threatening remarks.

Chris Long is an elite athlete with crazy-good reflexes. Yes, if he's gonna be dumb enough to jump into three guys wearing Rams jerseys, he could have taken the time to do what every siungle one of his teammates did-- jump into the GREEN JERSEYS.

Lastly-- I consider myself a "civilized" person. (Hey, I read books and stuff!) But if I'm going to shell out $300 for a ticket, I think I would feel like the fan wearing #29 Dickerson jersey-- I think I'd have have the right to enjoy the game without an opposing team's player coming up and shoving his 270-pound body up in my face and making me fall backward into my seat.

Like I say, I agree with you B and G (in general) about condemning boorish and obnoxious fans. And I agree with you that Long is an extraordinarily generous person. But I just can't shake my opinion that in this case Long acted like a jerk, and shares some of the responsibility. Do me a favor, just re-watch the way Long is screaming at the fan, you'll see it's pretty hard to defend how Long handled this.