Oakland Raiders game

 

My first NFL football game was worth the price of admission. I was visiting San Francisco with some friends and attended the game with friend of the blog and former law school classmates “Metallica Alf” and “Spursblitz.” Having heard the reputation for rowdiness at Oakland Colisseum, I arrived early to make sure to actually get in the stadium without much ruckus. On the pretty-efficient BART system, I saw a family with grandma and kids attending the game, making it seem like a safe environment. Nothing terrible here, I thought; it’s like a Sunday afternoon baseball game!

As soon as I got off at the Colisseum station, a drunk/excited/overexuberant man in an Oakland Raiders jersey hopped up and down at the walkway entrance to the stadium, stating, “Welcome Houston Texans fans (the opponent) to Oakland, CA. Your safety is not guaranteed!” This was interspersed within shouts of RAIIIIIIIIIIIDERS!!!!!! and general insobriety. Several people were arrested before the game. I walked into the stadium without any Raiders gear or black/silver gear on, a mistake I immediately tried to remedy by buying an Oakland Raiders shirt at the nearest concession, for fear of being branded an enemy of the state.

Individuals wearing Houston Texans gear were heckled, but the biggest instigator was a 5-person crew including a man wearing a Frank Gore San Francisco 49ers jersey. This man was not treated kindly, and neither was his entourage. Oddly, he seemed to welcome the attention as he calmly strode up the stairs to his seat through a sea of black, all giving him the middle finger and yelling “You suck!” at the top of their lungs. That’s one way to draw a crowd, I guess. Predictably, the man and his crew were challenged to a fight against some ardent Raiders fans (luckily sitting a few rows behind me) and got into a physical alteration, with lots of pushing and shoving, a man wearing a hippie shirt and long hair yelling “just let it go!” and hoots and hollering of “Beat his @$$!” that detracted from my enjoyment of the game. Eventually, security arrived and “escorted” the offenders away in handcuffs, answering definitely the question, “Is it a good idea to wear a 49ers jersey to a Raiders game?”

The actual game itself was one-sided from the start. The Texans received the opening kickoff and went right down the field, culminating in a 50-yard TD run by Arian Foster that was called down at the 1 and repeated from 1 yard out by Foster. At the end of the 3^rd quarter it was 27-0. Derek Carr, Oakland’s rookie QB, looked inaccurate, insecure, and overmatched. Coupled with Houston’s much improved defense, and the game was a blowout from the beginning.

Metallica Alf and Spursblitz were pretty calm and nonplussed about the whole exchange, suggesting to me they had a.) dealt with this sort of antagonism before and b) had heard from friends the reputation of Oakland Raiders games. Upon review on facebook, some acquaintances indicated that this behavior was “relatively” mild at Raiders games and that it would have been worse around the Black Hole, the stadium’s most famous area with the most ardent fans. Certainly from my perspective the environment seemed calm at first but turned hostile and aggressive as the game went on and people started getting aggravated by the play on the field, with the equivalent of a new prison inmate from a rival gang acting as a catalyst for violence.

I visited Alcatraz Island beforehand, and the running joke was that I wasn’t sure which facility held the most convicts at one point, Alcatraz or O.Co Stadium. The applicable Japanese phrase here was

郷に入らば郷に従え, meaning "do as the Romans do." When going to Oakland Colisseum on Raiders game day, do as other Raiders fans do. Do not heckle, harass, badger, or instigate in any way.

 

Overall, the day was tampered by heat, lack of Raiders offense, and multiple physical altercations, but I’m certain that I’ll never forget my first NFL football game, thus making it worth the price of admission. There will probably be more NFL football games I will attend in the future, just never again at the Oakland Colissuem.

 

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan