Distraction Du Jour for Bengals Fans

The chatter all over the interwebs among Bengals fans is the story of Randy R from Miamisburg.  Randy took his family to the Steelers game last weekend and was allegedly sucker punched by some Steelers fans sitting behind him.  Bengals security apparently caught one of the guys who was the designated driver but let him go and didn't attempt to track down the other two drunker Steelers fans who threw the punch.  Randy got a bloodied face and has a broken wrist from the incident.

Nate Livings, a Bengals OT on the practice squad, has already offered Randy free tickets to the next home game (Queue Lame Bengals Joke: Hasn't he suffered enough?!?) and UC has offered him tickets to the Bearcats upcoming Thursday game vs. USF at Nippert.

My thoughts:  First, I really don't care.  Call me callous or unemotional or cold, but focusing on Randy R's experience at the game does nothing to push the Bengals closer to being a winner.  It is the Bengals PR department's job to distract Bengals fans from the real story - it is WDR's mission to remind you that Mike Brown has taken YOUR Bengals and made them a complete joke for the last 18 seasons.   Randy R., I hope these guys are tracked down and spend a few dark nights in Hamilton County's Corrections System, but WDR will not be distracted from our goal of systematically changing the Bengals.

Second, it seems to be pretty easy for the Bengals to look into the situation and see if Randy's claims have merit.  Talk to some of the regular season ticket holders around him to get their version.  If there was a crime committed against Randy, involved the Cincinnati Police and track down the records of who sat in those exact seats through the game. They could very likely be Bengals fans season tickets that were sold on E-Bay or Stubhub and can be tracked down.  While they are clearly inept at putting a winning team on the field, perhaps they could take it upon themselves to ensure that Bengals fans aren't assulted at their own home games?

Third, if I was running the Bengals PR department, I would take this issue and run with it "Joe the Plummer" style.  This story could be a terrific distraction for Bengals fans away from the God-awful performance of the team so far.  Why do you think politicians talk about flag pins, pastors and terrorist friends all the time?  People are more interested in human interest stories than hearing about how our economy is in the shitter and our education system has been pumping out morons for decades.  People WANT a distraction from bad news and gloomy predictions.  The Bengals PR department (paging Geoff Hobson) should write more on this and less on how Cedric Benson is the second coming of Earl Campbell based on one play.

Here is the full story from Lance:

How was your fan experience Sunday?
Check out this email from listener Randy R...a lifelong Bengals fan

My name is Randy and I'm from Miamisburg. I am a lifelong diehard Bengal
fan. I can really only afford to go to one game a year and we chose Pittsburgh
this year hoping for great weather and we got it. It was my step-daughters
first Bengal's game and she was excited. Me, my wife and daughter met up with a
my son and a bunch of my friends to tailgate early and had a blast eating and
playing cornhole. It was great and she loved it.

We got seats on ebay sitting 28 yards up from the field dead center end zone.
We were already down 10-0 and Pittsburgh was driving right towards us. There
was a row of Steelers fans behind us. The guy directly behind me, (I had an
aisle seat) spilled beer on me and I asked him to him to watch it. They started
mouthing off about the Bengals and Mike Brown, whatever.

My wife and daughter went to the restroom. The guy directly me kept going on
about Mike Brown and I finally said, "At least he isn't selling our team. You
guys might end up the LA Steelers". I never turned around once or confronted
anyone. It was just banter during the game. Let's face it, it's pretty hard to
come up with anything to defend this franchise currently. Besides this wasn't a
fan on the losing side they were well on there way to victory.

The next thing I know I felt a crushing blow to the side of my face. I fell,
not really sure where since it knocked me out. I woke up in the security office
with my face being attended to. I was covered in blood and my face was a mess.
When I fell I must have hit a railing and went face first to the concrete stairs.
I have a broken wrist and a bruised knee.

They informed me that they did catch one of the three but that he admitted to
being the driver of the other two and didn't throw the punch so they didn't hold
him. I was pretty upset over this nonetheless. They didn't follow him to his
car to arrest the one who did punch me.

I have seen fights and altercations at previous games but this was different.
I have heard of it happening in other cities. They talk about it on the message
boards. It's called Hit and Run or Blast and Bolt as well as other things.

They go with the intention of finding someone to blindside and run. A total
sucker punch. They get out and knowing that the police aren't likely to follow
up on what is a misdemeanor. Yes, the police informed me it's a misdemeanor
since he didn't use a weapon like a bottle. It's further unlikely they will
follow up since they don't know who it is. Well, they have a camera footage of
him but it's unlikely they will do anything with it. The whole process is
unnerving.

Apparently it's more popular in bigger cities like Chicago, Philly and New York
but it seems to be spreading. So now I'm left to wonder where to go from her.
I am a victim. I have no real course of retribution as the police didn't see fit or plan on attempting to find out who did it. The experience ended bad for my wife an daughter and I will
never put them in harms way by going again. Are fans heading the way of
European soccer? You're crazy to take a kid to the game.

Comments

[EJM1]

I live in Steeler country and have clobbered a few black and gold, really it's not that hard just don't turn your back on them.