Throw the Flag on the '12th Man'

"I don't know what it is about football games, but the treatment I see people dishing out to others is ridiculous."

Abhinav Agrawal , Charlottesville

In response to Abhinav Agrawal and those readers of Joe Holley's front-page story in Monday's Washington Post chronicling excessive drinking and rowdy behavior at Washington Redskins home games at FedEx Field, I will borrow a line from Captain Renault, the prefect of police in "Casablanca," when he feigns discovery of prevalent illegal gambling at the nightspot Rick's: "I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here."

To which, I withhold astonishment at Holley's reporting of boorish, barroom, backyard, bullying behavior that has become all too common at FedEx Field -- as well as other NFL stadiums -- over the past decade as the game has become too often secondary to a daylong orgy of booze and barbeque.

It all begins at 9 a.m., when the gates open to the parking lots at FedEx Field and the trucks, vans, SUVs begin arriving, tents go up, grills are lit, the beer and Bloody Marys start flowing and the partygoers in team jerseys spread out like teenage toughs defending their beach territory.

Oh, for the civility and charm of a NASCAR race.

By the time the party heads for the stadium, too many of the participants seem ready for a fight, or at least a nap at home, instead of a game between two professional football teams. Invariably, some fans in home jerseys square off with opposing fans, with ushers and occasionally police, trying to restore order. It isn't pretty.

"The longer people have to drink and socialize, the more problems we anticipate," Prince George's police Lt. Terence Sheppard told The Post's Holley. Bob Warren, a Redskins season ticket holder for 40 years, said the game experience has changed over the years, telling Holley: "It's not the same friendly atmosphere it used to be. . . . The rowdiness and the language is definitely different."

In addition to too much drinking, there are other reasons why many fans believe their experience at FedEx Field is less enjoyable than what they remember at RFK Stadium. For starters, FedEx Field, the NFL's largest venue with nearly 92,000 seats, is almost twice as large as RFK (53,000). That not only makes for longer days, traffic-wise, but also disruptes many longtime ticket holders, who had gotten used to seat locations, seat neighbors and stadium routes.

Of course, nothing stays the same, and the club-like feel of RFK on Redskins Sundays is history. The owner of the Redskins for the last six years, Daniel Snyder, has turned the club into the most profitable pro sports franchise in the United States. But some of the club's strategies and game presentation have to be questioned, including the pregame fireworks, semi-hysterical boosterism from the P.A. announcer and scoreboard and encouragement from management and Coach Joe Gibbs who believe the so-called "12th man" could be the difference between winning and losing.

That theory, of course, is debatable, and attempts to get the team's response to these criticisms were unsuccessful. How one behaves at a sporting event is an individual decision. In my out-of-date view, fans at FedEx Field today might show some respect to fellow fans, the game and franchise (Sammy Baugh played here, you know) and feel satisfied -- win or lose -- knowing their favorite team is coached by a Hall of Famer and is made up of players mostly of character with the ability to play at the highest level. If that's not enough, maybe you should stay home.