Don’t take one experience and extrapolate it out to an entire fan base or a universal rule. I’m sure Clink is not close to the Black Hole but our hate for the 49ers in particular was likely a little to blame for any outbursts. I know I hate Douchbaugh as much as the next guy.

Short of actual violence, I think by putting on an opposing team’s jersey you make yourself a target for whatever abuse random drunk fans want to rain down on you.

I’ve seen the same behavior from the other side over the years in Denver and many, many times as Seahawk fan at Candlestick, and an M’s fan in Oakland.

The only thing I will say is that my last two experiences at Candlestick before moving away made me swear off attending any more games in person there. And these were under the late Holmgren and Mora regimes, where I think we got waxed in both (Willis broke Hasselbeck’s ribs in one of them).

I found things had become so charged there that the outcome of the game made no difference – if Niners lost, I’d have to navigate through miscellaneous roving groups of people wanting to take out their frustrations on an opposing fan. If the Niners won, those same groups would be walking around, pounding their chests, looking for a Seahawks fan to bully.

It was the following season, I think, where that stabbing happened outside Candlestick.

Not worth it, was my calculation.

I’m not naive enough to think that just because I’ve never seen kids getting cursed at at the Clink, it hasn’t happened. But I’ve never heard anyone talk of feeling as unsafe as I felt in Candlestick, which is the key.

Chalk it up as a life lesson for the lady and her son.

Speaking of which, you know how embarrassed that kid is going to be when he gets back to school – he’s that kid whose mom wrote to the paper because he got his feelings hurt. At 14, I know his peers will never let him live this down.

I guarantee he’ll learn something from this .

Seahawks 24-10 with the Rams scoring a TD late to make the score look better than it really was.

bbnate–Im not trying to fight with you, I promise. But I have seen the kindest, nicest people I know get crazy with too much alcohol…especially ones that dont drink much; the sauce does different stuff to different people. Even folks who arent violent can get that way when drunk enough. Its proven that alcohol lowers inhibitions, but I think its crosses wires and distorts information and messes with emotions in a lot of people as well. (That last has some basis in fact, but is mostly just my personal opinion.) And some people who are pretty grumpy are happy drunks; it all depends. With heavy drinking, you never know how a person will react to a given situation, thats what makes it scary, especially in a mob of people.

I really hope you dont take that the wrong way, its just talk.

As for the lady and her kid, I cant help but think its stupid to heap abuse on visiting fans, regardless of whether they are wearing opponents gear or not. Unless of course they are being obnoxious first. I myself might give them some crap, but I wouldnt swear at them, throw things, insult them personally, or that kind of thing. And I am disappointed to hear SEattle fans act that way…I think fans were a little less obnoxious back in Knox’s day; perhaps some of that is because back then, the Seahawks were Blue Collar fun–nowadays it aint that way, with ticket prices so high its quite a lot of folks who make a good deal of money and seem to feel entitled to behave badly. But thats the case all over the NFL, Seattle aint different.

I know quite a few people who have attended games in the Clink, and my wife’s extended family of like 40 people have season tickets…and yeah, they all say it can get bad for opposing teams fans at Hawks games. But its not like its Oakland…

Seattle still has some of the best fans in the nation. They are usually decently behaved and still stick around when their team sucks for years…no fair weather fans, ours…

Does this lady live in a cave with no internet connection or cable TV? My cousin Gracie lives in Vancouver and she’s a little naive too, so maybe the Vancouver area is like a cave without much outside input. Did this lady think she was visiting an art museum or symphony concert?

I’ve always been impressed by the gall of people who feel free to impose their values, customs and personal beliefs on every other living soul around them. Christian missionaries, German tourists, and people from the greater Portland area come to mind.

Does this lady really believe that her 14 year old hasn’t heard/doesn’t use curse words? Grow up. You weren’t going to church. Obviously, alcohol fuels a lot of this. It can bring out some of the bad aspects of your personality. I don’t believe it necessarily makes people violent though, just more likely to let the violent ahole inside them out. I have never been violent, no matter how drunk I was. Obnoxious on a Hawks blog, yes. People likely to be violent drunk are the same aholes that look for fights sober, just worse. And keeping alcohol out of the stadium wouldn’t help a whole lot IMO. Most of the most obnoxious people there were probably tailgating long before the game and lubricated prior to entering the gates. I know I usually am when I go.