Monday, January 11, 2016

Home Field (Dis)Advantage


Tough weekend for the home teams in the NFL—Houston, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Washington all lost their wildcard games.  The home fans are supposed to be the twelfth man, like at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, right?  Or maybe it’s just so much noise to gloss over the cost of a playoff ticket.

In any case, the home team should always lose when fans act like they did in Cincinnati Saturday night.  In the third quarter of the Steelers-Bengals game, injured Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was carted off the field to the accompaniment of boos and garbage tossed his way.  But Karma’s a bitch, as they say, as Bengals’ fans discovered when their players matched them for bad behavior.  Two personal-foul penalties late in the game set up the Steelers’ winning field goal. 

If only the clowns were confined to Cincinnati; alas, they’re everywhere, including Chicago.  We don’t throw stuff as much as chant, with B******t! the odds-on favorite.  And, yes, White Sox fans are as likely to do it as anyone else.  You don’t have to be nice to opposing players, and, heaven knows I did my share of catcalling when I enjoyed seats just four rows from the field at Comiskey Park.  But in the end, it’s just a game that reflects back on us.      

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