Unnecessary Rudeness
Adam Markowitz
Tuesday October 31, 2006
Around 7:00 this morning, I found myself watching SportsCenter, and listened to a report about an Orlando Magic fan that was expelled from all Magic games and NBA-related events for calling Houston Rockets’ Dikembe Mutombo a "monkey." The story disgusted me to see just how ignorant some people could be. Lo and behold, there was a similar story in the Orlando Sentinel entitled "Magic fan’s sad comments are indefensible" by Jemele Hill, which I took the time to read.
The man’s name was Hooman Hamzehloui, a man of Persian descent. Hill goes on to explain that she doesn’t believe that Hamzehloui is a racist and that he was simply unaware the magnitude of the comment he made, but her problem is that he will not take full responsibility for his actions. True, Hamzehloui made an offer to Mutombo to make a charitable donation in Mutombo’s name in apology for his slur, but Hill makes a point that we tend to use ignorance as an excuse for actions in life. To be completely honest with you, I thought this was a terrific article… until the last few lines…
After Hamzehloui explained that he won’t be supporting the NBA any longer and that the NBA lost a "great fan," Hill closed with the disturbing line: "If that’s his attitude, he won’t be missed. He would make a great Predator fan."
Excuse me? A great Predator fan? What type of comment is that? The Sentinel runs this article that throws this guy under the bus (and I’m not saying they’re wrong to do so), but then says that he’s good enough to be a Predator fan? Ms. Hill, I have one statement for you.
Look yourself in the mirror.
Yes, Orlando Predators fans have had their problems in the past. Playoff games have been halted because of fans throwing beer bottles and other garbage onto the field after horrific calls by officials or gestures by players and opposing players regularly take verbal abuse for 60 minutes from the fans. But this is too far.
Once again, I must stress that I agreed with Hill’s article 100% until her last comment. It is okay for the NBA to expel a fan for a racial slur, but do we, the fans have a right to expel a writer when she associates that same person in a negatively stereotypical way towards a different league?
This is yet another case of the Arena Football League being treated as a second class league. In this case it was comparing the Predators and the Magic. What’s to say that it won’t be the Falcons and the Force, the Mavericks and the Desperadoes, the Phillies and the Soul or the Avalanche and the Crush next? Is this really the perception that the rest of the sporting world has about us, the AFL fans? Are we merely a group of fans who are a rowdy bunch of troublemakers and are a haven for fans that have been expelled from other sports?
Just in case the Sentinel thought they were picking on a minority of fans in Orlando, 15,561 attended the average Magic game in ’05-’06. For a "second rate sport," the Preds held their own at 13,908 a game. And for what it’s worth, was it a Predator fan that attacked Stuff, the Magic mascot during a game last season? Is he ripe for front row tickets to the Preds next year too?
The bottom line here is simply showing that fans aren’t perfect people. There is no such thing as a team that doesn’t have any security issues or any problems with rowdy fans in the stands. It is our responsibility as fans to maintain ourselves in a fashion that is suitable for attending a game, but it isn’t our fault when someone else oversteps those boundaries.
Predator fans are just like Magic fans, Ms. Hill. If you would like to believe that the nearly 14,000 people that attend Predator games aren’t some of the people that attend Magic games, that is for you to decide. But especially in Orlando, where there really isn’t much of anything else to support aside from the Magic and the Predators, the town rallies behind their SPORTS teams, not just their NBA team. You’ll find that most fans of Arena Football teams throughout the country also support their other teams locally, whether they are major league, minor league, or collegiate. This isn’t just an attack on Predator fans or AFL fans. This is an attack on sports fans. If there is a fan that is good enough for the NBA, he’s good enough for the AFL. If he’s not good enough for the NBA, don’t even pretend like he is good enough for the AFL, and certainly don’t associate and relate people who make racial slurs, whether because of ignorance or racism to my team and my league. I am highly offended and would have to believe that many of you reading this are by now as well.
So I urge all fans of all teams, NBA, AFL, or otherwise, to stand up to this nonsense. One member of the Predators’ "In Your Face Fan Club" had this to say about this article. "I’ve already written to her about how offensive I found that line to be. Why don’t you?" I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.
