Brawls, Police Response Give Redskins and NFL a Black Eye
by Michael E. Ruane and Leonard Shapiro, Washington Post
The police pepper spray that sickened Philadelphia Eagles players near the end of a nationally televised game against the Redskins at FedEx Field was used to stop one of many brawls during an evening of unusually volatile rowdiness and intoxication, police and officials from both teams said yesterday.
The officials, and several witnesses who were among the 84,982 spectators, portrayed a Monday night that began with pageantry but degenerated into a series of drunken battles between fans of the Eagles and the Washington team, with outnumbered Prince George’s County police and stadium security guards trying to intervene.
Authorities said that no one was arrested, because the crowd dispersed when the pepper spray was released, and that no serious spectator injuries were reported. But fans, players and many officials said yesterday that the brawls were both frightening and damaging to the sport’s image.
“Between the fight, and the people trying to get out of there, and our guys puking, man, it looked like Dante’s Inferno,” said Eagles security director Anthony “Butch” Buchanico, who was on the sidelines.
While the rivalry between the two National Football League teams has long been intense, there were larger numbers of Eagles fans than usual at the game, according to spectators and officials.
The Redskins attributed the crowd’s rowdiness, a source said, to the combination of it being a Monday night game and the presence of the Eagles, whose fans have a reputation for being among the league’s most demonstrative. The Redskins are satisfied that the level of security at FedEx Field is adequate, the source said.
The fighting in the stands culminated with about six minutes left in the game in section 220 near the 50-yard line, two levels up but relatively close to the Eagles’ bench, officials said.
It happened at a time when the majority of dejected Redskins fans -- their team trailing by 30 points -- had exited the stadium early to begin their drive home. The Washington supporters who remained were upset at their team’s drubbing. Eagles fans gleefully rubbed it in. And many of those left behind had been partying for hours.
Prince George’s police said yesterday that a sergeant saw a spectator on the ground being kicked by a group of about 10 others. The sergeant was unable to break up the fight and used his pepper spray to disperse the assailants, police said.
But the spray, a water-based concentrate made from chili pepper plants that causes inflammation of the eyes, nose and throat, was drawn in by powerful sideline blowers used to cool players and wafted over the Eagles bench.
In a bizarre scene captured by ABC network cameras, the spray sickened several Eagles players, sent the rest of the team fleeing from the sidelines and prompted NFL officials to halt the game. Play resumed eight minutes later after choking and vomiting Eagles were treated with oxygen and wet towels. The Redskins lost, 37-7.
Although worse things have happened at NFL games -- two years ago, an Oakland Raiders fan went to jail for stabbing a San Diego Chargers fan -- Frank Keel, director of communications for the city of Philadelphia, said the incident was “embarrassing for the Redskins . . . embarrassing for the league.”
“It’s unfortunate that the combination of sports fanaticism and alcohol too oftentimes leads to these unruly brawls in the stands,” Keel said. “But it seems to us that the police could have exercised better judgment in using pepper spray the way they did, and in using it in such proximity to the field.”
In a statement, the Prince George’s police department said yesterday: “The officer made the decision to deploy the pepper spray to quickly control a potentially dangerous situation with the minimal force necessary to assist the spectator in trouble.”
No county officials were available for elaboration, despite numerous requests. The police statement, issued in late afternoon, did not say how many officers are assigned to Redskins games or detail department crowd-control policy in such situations.
Redskins spokesman Karl Swanson said Prince George’s police have jurisdiction over the stadium in law enforcement matters. “Our security people are not there to be policemen,” Swanson said. “They will ask rowdy fans to leave. If rowdy fans don’t leave, the police come in to take care of that. We don’t pretend to be policemen.”
Many people at the game at first thought something much more serious had happened when the pepper spray began to affect several Eagles players. “I had no idea what was going on,” Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said. “The first thing you think of is some crazy attack on innocent football players. It was very scary.”
NFL referee Bob McElwee’s vague public announcement in the stadium that there had been a “foreign substance” in the air also alarmed some. One NFL official said yesterday that he thought McElwee, who did not know it was pepper spray, had handled the situation well, though the referee might have explained what the substance was after play resumed.
Eagles linebacker Ike Reese was among the players most severely affected. “I just started choking,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was, but I could tell it was something I was inhaling. . . . I was just scared I was going to choke to death.”
Philadelphia tight end Chad Lewis said: “It wasn’t until I got onto the field and heard somebody talking about anthrax when I said, ‘Whoa! Here we are in Washington, D.C., and who knows what might happen here.’ ” All affected players recovered fairly quickly, officials said.
Eagles spokesman Derek Boyko said the team did not plan to seek an apology from the Redskins. “It was a freak thing,” he said. “I’d say there was more concern than anger. You just don’t want it to happen again.”
Dennis Lewin, the NFL director of broadcasting who was at the game, called it an “an unfortunate fluke.”
“You can’t blame that on the Redskins or on Monday Night Football,” he said.
Sam Strulson, 25, a Redskins season-ticket holder and software programmer from Arlington who was taking his girlfriend to her first pro sporting event, said he was repulsed by the conduct of fans.
“It was absolutely one of the most ridiculous evenings I’ve ever been a part of,” he said. “It was pretty violent, and not a fan-friendly or game-friendly atmosphere.”
He said he saw one Eagles fan punch a female Redskins fan and knock her down near the end of the game. He said the Eagles fan had called the woman a name. She pushed him, and he struck her, according to Strulson. “At that point, I was like, ‘Okay, we’re going home.’ ”
He said it was probably unwise of the Redskins to open the parking lots at 3 p.m., as the team had for security and traffic reasons. “It just gave the Eagles fans six hours to get rowdy. We showed up at 5:30, and by the time we got there, there was a sea of green taking over a section of the parking, and they were horrible.”
Eagles fans have notoriously misbehaved in their home stadium. Several years ago, in response to hooligans in the stands, the city of Philadelphia set up a court inside Veterans Stadium to process arrested rowdies on site. It was disbanded after a year, an Eagles spokesman said yesterday.
At stadiums across the country, local police departments share responsibility for keeping fans in line with unarmed security guards. But the division of labor can vary.
At Baltimore’s Camden Yards, home of baseball’s Orioles, the city police “do everything from crowd control in the stadium to directing traffic outside, to working in stadium boxes,” said Officer Troy Harris, a department spokesman.
By contrast, New Jersey State Police troopers are told to keep a low profile when patrolling Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
“Our general policy is we wait for the [security guards] to call us,” said Lt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the department.
In Philadelphia, police avoid using pepper spray in areas where large numbers of people have gathered -- including stadiums. “We do not spray crowds,” said Sgt. Roland Lee, a spokesman.
Kirk Reynolds, director of public relations for the San Francisco 49ers, said police at the stadium carry pepper spray but are under strict instructions not to use it except in the most dangerous conditions. “They break up fights, but they do it in numbers,” he said. “If two people are fighting, eight officers will go in. We’ve never used the spray to break up fights.”