By Kelvin Wade
I just read this article by John Steigerwald. He’s some submoron who writes for the Observer-Reporter in Pennsylvania. That’s really irrelevant. He wrote an article entitled, “Know When You’ve Outgrown the Uniform.” His premise is that 42 year old San Francisco Giants fan, Bryan Stow, who was brutally beaten by a couple of Dodger fans, and remains in a coma, brought it on himself by wearing his team’s jersey into another team’s stadium.
I’m not making this up. Steigerwald writes, “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.”
So Stow got himself beaten by what he chose to wear. I guess it follows that Steigerwald believes women who wear revealing clothing bring rape onto themselves. They’re asking for it.
He goes on to write: “Are there really 40-something men who think that wearing the jersey makes them part of the team? It was cute when a 10-year-old kid got that feeling by showing up at Three Rivers Stadium in a Pirates jersey, but when did little boys stop growing out of that?”
How could an alleged sports writer so misunderstand sports fans? Why should anyone have to explain to this guy why sports fans wear the jerseys and colors of their team?
After a firestorm of condemnation, Steigerwald offered one of those limp non-apology apologies. First, he proclaimed that he doesn’t apologize for the column but wrote, “I do apologize to the Stow family if this nonsense has reached them and in any way added to their pain.” If it added to their pain? The fact that he can’t see that what he wrote would clearly add to their pain is crazy.
Steigerwald wields a keyboard like a toddler with a handgun.
He also added, in his defense, “Nowhere did I imply that Stow deserved what happened to him. I thought that the difference between DESERVING a consequence and unwittingly contributing to one was implicit.”
But he fails here again. Let’s go back to my analogy. If a woman wearing a thong bikini decided to knowingly walk past a bar at 2:00 AM when a group of drunken guys spills out following a bachelor party, while she doesn’t deserve anything bad happening to her, she is exercising poor judgment.
But that’s not what Bryan Stow did. He was a sports fan wearing a sports jersey at a sporting event. That’s the equivalent of a woman wearing a thong bikini on a beach. That’s where you would expect that attire!
If opposing fans aren’t allowed to sport their teams’ colors at away games, should they also not cheer for their team? Sit quietly? According to the Steigerwald Rules of Opposing Team Fan Conduct, just what should fans do? Should they not even attend games at rivals’ stadiums?
Get real. There are two people responsible for that beating and those are the two punks on the run. John Steigerwald should have the testicular fortitude to just say he blew it on this column.
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