When It Hits a Fan: How a Career Ends Before It Starts
Brian Beaudry
Wednesday May 6, 2015
This isn’t new for Quincy Butler. No, he hasn’t been in trouble for throwing his helmet indiscriminately and hitting a fan at a game. But he has been on the outside looking in more times than he’d probably like to admit.
Like a lot of players with NFL dreams, he was a star at college. Butler earned First-team All-MWC honors for a No. 11 TCU team, then shone at his pro day with 4.4 speed on a 6’1” 190 lb. frame. The Dallas Cowboys signed him as an undrafted free agent.
Then he spent the next several years on the NFL bubble.
· -2006: Cowboys sign him, release him, sign him to the practice squad.
· -2007: Cowboys sign him, release him, sign him to the practice squad.
· -2008: Cowboys sign him, release him…New Orleans Saints sign him to their practice squad, Saints release him, St. Louis Rams sign him for the 2009 season.
· -2010: Saints sign him again to replace Randall Gay; he is cut to make room for Darren Sharper. Rams re-sign him.
· -2011: Saints re-sign him; release him.
That’s five years of having your dreams at your fingertips and taken away every time you think you’ve wrapped your hands around them.
He went to the CFL, where his performance in 2012 was called “outstanding.” He sustained an injury in the middle of the season, though, which would become a recurring theme in Calgary. In 2013, his season was cut short by injury. In 2014, his season was cut short by injury. Late in the season, he pled guilty to assaulting a taxi driver. With that charge on his record, he was no longer eligible to play in Canada, which makes a career in the CFL impossible.
Finally, in the second AFL game of his career, he was ejected. In his anger over being ejected, he threw his helmet at the wall on his way out. Instead of flying into the wall harmlessly, the helmet elevated and hit a fan.
Other ArenaFan columnists want him to be banned and have said “this is as ugly as it gets in sports.” Let’s all back away from the hot take furnace.
· -Brandon Jacobs didn’t get suspended for even one game by the NFL when he accidentally threw his helmet into the stands in Indianapolis in 2010 (of course, in this case, the fan caught the helmet).
· -Bobby Sippio wasn’t banned when he went into the stands and fought an AFL fan in 2010.
· -Frank Francisco, the former Texas Ranger who threw a chair at an A’s fan in 2007, was suspended 15 games by MLB (the equivalent of about one football game).
· -Entire NHL and NBA teams have gone into the stands and brawled with fans; no player from either incident was kicked out of the league.
The league is going to do what it takes to reduce its own liability (remember, Butler is a league employee, not a Thunder employee). No one’s going to take on the liability issues, and no one’s going to opt to be seen as “supporting” a tantrum. He’s not a proven star in the league like Sippio was, so the risks won’t outweigh the rewards, and his career is done, even without banishment.
Before he goes, though, let’s remember several factors that went into this incident; change a single one and no one gets hurt.
1. It was his second AFL game. In college, the NFL, and CFL, guys throw helmets frequently beyond their bench. There are several yards and a large wall separating anyone from flying helmets. If he had more AFL experience, he is probably more aware of his surroundings beyond the field.
2. It happened in Philadelphia, where benches are effectively in the crowd. Looking at the video, it basically looks like the team is sitting in the front row. In arenas where the benches are in the end zones, he’s not going straight toward the wall when he’s ejected, and if he throws his helmet, it’s into an empty team area.
3. Neither he nor Thomas deserved to be ejected for what happened initially. Butler had just been thrown to the ground by Ryan McDaniel, was getting up, and the two grappled a bit through the whistle and tripped over Bryce Peila, who had just made the tackle. If they’re grappling on a different spot on the field, it’s a situation where whistles keep blowing and the refs just separate them. No punches could be seen in the video; that’s usually what causes an ejection.
4. Perhaps if a teammate goes to get him off the field instead of the Soul having to point it out and the ref having to go get him, things go better. The Thunder knew he’d been ejected; a ninth player comes out on the field several seconds before even the Soul point Butler out.
5. I concede the obvious one; the one Butler could control. Don’t throw your helmet and no one can get hit. But as with every bad event, it starts with a series of small errors that turn into a big one.
Rather than focus on “Imagine the worst thing that could’ve happened,” which is very, very popular these days, let’s imagine what would’ve happened if no one was in that seat (imagine it took place in New Orleans). Let’s imagine if it had hit the wall, his likely target. There might be a call for a game suspension or so, but that’s about as far as anyone would push for.
If we want to use worst-case scenarios, we’ll have to put up the Plexiglass and put nets around the whole arena to prevent anyone from getting hit by anything going into the stands, including players (legally), footballs, or other miscellaneous objects. Arena Football is already a dangerous game for front-row fans; the cost of freedom is an inherent increase in risk.
If his 2014 assault charge wasn’t a reason to prevent him from playing in the AFL, why should this be what dooms him? If fighting a fan isn’t grounds for banishment, why should an accident be? If no other professional league bans people for intentionally attacking fans, why should an accident be where we draw the line?
He’ll probably never again be in the NFL; he’s already effectively banned from the CFL. The AFL is really his last option for football if he wants at least a livable wage. Do we need to take that opportunity away because of an accident?