(My Video) Drunk Raider Fan Getting Arrested After Taking the Field

as some of you may remember, i had an epic experience earlier this year while attending a Rockets game behind the Rockets bench. i created (what amounted to be) an epic thread about the experience, and i thank you fellow BBSers again for the support you showed me.

i got a chance to attend the Raiders-Texans game yesterday, and was fortunate enough to be seated in the front row of one of the end zones. given that it was my first Oilers/Texans game ever, it was already an incredible experience being able to see the game (and the stadium) from the vantage point.

if that weren't enough, i had the best view of an incident that went down in the first half. In the front row, there is a railing that separates the fans from the playing field below. Home teams (like the Texans) keep some personnel there at the railing, at the bottom of the stairs, not only to prevent fans from throwing anything on to the field, but also to encourage fans to cheer on the team. The guy assigned to our stairs was an older gentleman, probably in his 60s.

Towards the ends of the first quarter/beginning of the second quarter (I can't remember exactly when), an Oakland Raiders fan came all the way down to our seats and started talking to the security guy. I was under the impression he was just trying to sneak down to our front row seats and watch the action from there (the two seats next to us were empty at the time), and that the older security guy was telling him he'd have to go back to his seat. At the time, all of the game action was happening on the other end of the field, so it didn't make too much sense.

What I found out later from my friend Jordan who was sitting next to me, right next to this standing, drunk, obviously incoherent Raiders fan (who happened to be wearing all of the typical Raider Nation spike garb) was that the Raiders fan was announcing his intention to storm the field. No one (including the security guy) thought he was serious, since it's a pretty big drop-off to the field below. Keep in mind that, between the end zone and the railing, there is a track on which a lot of the stadium personnel walk (so as to stay off the field). And, from the railing to the ground, there is about an 8 foot drop. Coupled with the fact that there is a 3 foot railing, it's not an easy jump/fall to make.

Well, not even two feet from me, the drunk fan went over the railing. As soon as he started putting his leg over the railing, everything became quite surreal. The older security guy tried to grab a hold of him, but ended up getting either punched or kicked in the face by the drunk fan. (The security guy was shaken up, literally, pretty bad, and did not return to his post until sometime in the second half, after receiving medical attention.)

The drunk fan landed face-first into the track, with a thud that was painful to hear and even more painful to watch. I, as well as the three of my friends with whom I was siting, thought the guy would be gone after the fall he took. Surprisingly, he got up and started stumbling around. (It's likely that the alcohol had him buzzing so hard that he was unable to feel the pain from the face-plant.)

At the edge of the field, where the track and the end zone meet, the home team has its flag-bearers, who spend most of the game cheering on the team and encouraging the fans to stand up, until the home team scores, at which point they take turns running the team flag across the field. At the moment, the Texans were on defense at the other end of the field, so everyone's attention (the photographers'/cameramens', flag-bearers', on-field security personnel's) was in that direction.

Well the wasted Raiders' fan, after getting up from the 8-foot face-plant, stumbles over to one of the flag-bearers, who was clapping for the Texans at the time, pats him on the back, and starts stumbling/running into the corner of the end zone. After the surreal nature of the fan going over the railing wore off on me, I got my camera out to start videotaping. I was able to capture what happened just after he patted the flag-guy on the back. It's a good thing, too, that I did, because none of the video cameramen were focusing on what was happening on our end of the field.

The flag guy was stunned, and as he told me later, he turned around and just kept on clapping, not realizing this drunk Raiders' guy was a fan who jumped the railing. The flag guy was under the impression that the Raiders' guy may have just been someone who had permission to walk around on the track (like the Texans' mascot Toro) to pump up the Raiders' fans and rile up the Texans' fans.

Well, as you can see from the video, the drunk fan starts to take off his Raider nation spike garb as he's drunk-stumbling across the field. One of the Reliant Stadium crew personnel (in green) manages to take him down, with the aid of a few others. A scuffle ensued, before the drunkard was finally handcuffed and escorted out to a serenade of boos from the Texans' fans.

Enjoy.

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thanks, man.

rep appreciated!

 

so, i got some additional info about the incident from a Texans fan that sent me a message through Youtube. here it is, copied & pasted:

"Here's the full story:

The yellow shirt usher is Paul and the section he was in (yours) is not his real section. He is the BullPen yellow shirt (one section to your right). The reason he was there is that he was demoted because of his actions during a fight the previous week against the Jags. A guy who is Houston royalty (Jordy Tollet) was shoved down by Paul during a fight and Jordy busted his head open. Thats the true irony, Paul did get what he described as "Push P:unched on the side of his face right before Raider fan went over the wall.

The Raider fan is actually from Galveston, not even from Oakland in the first place. His friend that he came to the game with described him as a "nut job" and his friend said that the guy never even mentioned anything about going on the field, he just said "I'll be right back" and walked down the stairs to where Paul (yellow shirt was)...obviously you saw the rest.

I talked to the cop after the game and the cop told us that when he asked the guy why in the world he would do something liek that knowing he would get caught, he told the cop that he was so pissed about the Raiders and the play calling, that he was going to run over and "Punch Coach Cable in the face".

I swear that is the funniest ****ing thing I have ever heard in my life. It also explianed why he was running towards the Raiders bench and not out on to the field like most drunk field crashers usually do.

I've stood in the BullPen for every Houston game since 2002, the one section over from you in the front row behind the camera pit. Charles, the camera man in that pit did have the CBS camera pointed at the whole thing and caught it all on video, but CBS/NFL has a policy against showing it on TV or the JumboTrons. I did get some really great photos and if you want to see more, go to www.texansbullpen.com and click on the photos page for the Oakland game. Thats our tailgate/BullPen section website and Andy has some amazing pics of it too. "

 

thanks to at least one online blog (link), the hit count on my video has already hit 21,000+ hits.

i sent it in to SI's Hot Clicks, so, if they include it in their national blog, i'd love to see how high the total views go up.