now they just need to focus on the team ..............

 

Bengals call out jerk fans

Team can zoom in, cancel tickets

BY BARRETT J. BRUNSMAN / ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

If you act like a jerk at Paul Brown Stadium this Sunday, somebody with better manners could end up in your seat for the rest of the Bengals' home games.

 

All it would take is a phone call.

 

The football team has set up a telephone hot line - 513-381-JERK (5375) - that fans with cell phones will be able to call to report obnoxious behavior in the stands.

 

 

Those who use excessive foul language will be warned. If they persist, they risk being ejected from the game and having their season tickets and seat licenses revoked. Those who behave worse might also be arrested and jailed.

The Bengals won't target a fan who lets an expletive slip should quarterback Carson Palmer be sacked or a pass intended for wide receiver Chad Johnson be intercepted, said Bob Bedinghaus, the team's director of development for Paul Brown Stadium.

 

"We're not going to be the curse police. You need to understand you're coming to an NFL football game," Bedinghaus said. "On the other hand, we want to make sure that we're paying attention to those folks who are going over the line."

 

The stadium's 38 video cameras will enable security officials to focus on people who are reported to the jerk line.

 

Some of the more than 500 security and police officers who work each game will respond.

 

"We have more than enough cameras to zoom in on every position in the seating bowl - close enough that we can clearly get photographic images of the people sitting there," Bedinghaus said.

 

Beer is fueling the problem, fans have complained to team officials. It has escalated in the past three years, as more young adults have packed the stadium because of the Bengals' improved performance.

 

"They were complaints (of) excessive drunkenness. People that were kind of falling down drunk," Bedinghaus said. "And there were some fights last year. Whenever you put 65,000 people together, you're always going to have some fights. But there were a few more than normal."

 

Drunks have offended people such as Jeanie Dittrich of West Chester, who took her son, Austin, 12, to the January playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

"All he wanted for Christmas was a playoff ticket," said Dittrich, 42, a season ticket-holder who usually goes to games with her husband, Gary, 44.

 

Her son had never attended a game at Paul Brown Stadium.

 

"We told him beforehand, 'You might see some drunk people, you might hear some F-words and swearing.' But at the game, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm going to mar my son for the rest of his life by having him come to this game.' It was so bad."

 

Usually, she said, people who sit near her along a goal line in the lower section don't act that way. But many of them apparently had sold their tickets - to people who were wearing Pittsburgh jerseys.

 

DRUNK FROM THE START

 

"At kickoff time, people were just sloppy drunk," Dittrich said. "I was really concerned for my son to see all this."

 

Security removed some people in front of them, she said. A woman next to Dittrich kept spilling beer on her. "And there was some inebriated guy next to my son. And he kept just swearing, and then he kept apologizing to him. And he helped start one of the fights."

 

The Bengals hope the hot line will curb such boorish behavior, as well as people who throw things in the stands or onto the field.

 

Bedinghaus said unruly fans have been an issue nationwide and that Paul Brown Stadium is more fan-friendly than most.

 

But "one thing that has been a consistent problem ... for the last three or four years is the issue of foul language at football games," Bedinghaus said.

 

The Bengals will notify season ticket-holders this week about the jerk line and the consequences of misbehaving. The team also plans to produce a video that will air during home games to tout the hot line.

 

According to the National Football League, it's up to the 32 teams to deal with unruly fans. Policies and procedures vary by stadium.

 

The team expects some crank calls to the jerk line.

 

"You can get a lot of abuse with these things," Bedinghaus said. "If you get 6,000 people calling this line - 'Hey, Ben Roethlisberger is a jerk' - then it becomes less effective. The thing to remember is we have caller ID on this line. So if you're crank calling, we are going to be able to ID who you are."

 

Dittrich said she and her husband will continue to go to Bengals games. While leery about taking any of her four children, she welcomes the hot line to report jerks.

 

"I would definitely use it if I saw cause for it," she said. "I'm glad they're rethinking the whole alcohol issue and trying to get people to be smarter about it."

 

E-mail bbrunsman@enquirer.com

 

i know when the hawks played there a couple years ago, the people I know who went to the game said it was the most obnoxious crowd they've ever been a part of - that the people were drunk, trashy, spit on you, threw beers at you, were pissing in concourses, etc and security just stood by - pathetic how some people act at games

I don't like this system, but someting had to be done.

Part of the things described are part of being at football games. But some of them, like people falling down drunk before kickoff or swearing just for the sake of swearing is ridiculous.

 

People need to have more respect for other people and for the game. Football crowds really are getting out of hand.

 

Good move by the Bengals. Every team should have something like this.

This was done after the various fighting, spitting and beer pouring at the last Steelers game. No doubt in my mind.

 

It's not usually a problem, but in that atmosphere it got bad. I've NEVER witnessed anyone peeing outside, however.

I hope we don't hear how bad of a person Eric Steinbach is now.. drinking and boating is a nat'l pastime

Sounds like a fun stadium.

I hope we don't hear how bad of a person Eric Steinbach is now.. drinking and boating is a nat'l pastime

 

If FFIPA didn't like Iowa we'd have a thread to discuss it in.

Ever been to a Dolphins-Jets game? That's crazy.

I guess there is nothing wrong with ejecting someone who is out of control, but as long as the dont go over board and throw people out who are swearing then it cant be tooooo bad.

I actually have been thrown out of a game at dolphins stadium but I deserved. I was drunk as hell and yelling that zack thomas should go f himself and the like.

As bad as I can imagine some stadiums being, nothing is worse than Philadelphia and Oakland.

 

For God's sake Philly has a jail in the stadium for their fans, and in Oakland they might as well just put bars around and over the whole stadium because the whole place is a hellhole.

As much as it sucks to say it...

 

You CANNOT go to other team's games in pro football. You just can't do it. You'll get heckled, hated on and maybe some beer poured on you. I wouldn't even CONSIDER going to the Browns or Steelers respective stadiums because I've heard horror stories and seen how our fans treat theirs. I mean, don't get me wrong, yeah if you want to camoflauge the fact that that you're an away fan you MIGHT get away with it, but I won't do that. I'm not wearing Browns gear and rooting for the Bengals!

 

People take football too seriously in this country.

philly was pretty bad - i generally wear my stuff to opposing stadiums and actually loved cleveland - i don't mind junk talk, but leave it at that

 

too many pathetic people derive their self worth off the actions of athletes - a way to pump themselves up amongst the herd

 

i've never had too many issues - but it's stupid the way people act - "we got to defend our stadium" - wtf does that mean, are titan fans sneaking in with plastic explosives?!

 

what you need to do is just cheer on your team and enjoy the product on the field without being an ass in the stands

I went into Pro Player with my sister in 04' when the Steelers came to town and I have to say it felt like I was in Heinz Field. The crowd was pretty much split 50/50 and the heavy rain pretty much kept people from interacting and getting rowdy. Still though a pretty pathetic showing by the Phins fans, I only got booed once and it was by a chick who was absent-mindely razzing on me as she was flipping burgers. Though, I'll give Dolphins fans a pass they were under the tyranical thumb of Wansteidt and thus dispirited and depressed.

philly was pretty bad - i generally wear my stuff to opposing stadiums and actually loved cleveland - i don't mind junk talk, but leave it at that

 

too many pathetic people derive their self worth off the actions of athletes - a way to pump themselves up amongst the herd

 

i've never had too many issues - but it's stupid the way people act - "we got to defend our stadium" - wtf does that mean, are titan fans sneaking in with plastic explosives?!

 

what you need to do is just cheer on your team and enjoy the product on the field without being an ass in the stands

 

 

See...

 

I've been to Cleveland. Let's see... Got barked at from the entrance to my seats, I mean literally on all fours and barked at by the same two dudes, which got kind of old because then others would see it and join in or flick you off. After a touchdown some dude tried to pour beer on me. Man a dog bone were thrown my way, got kind of annoying. Some dude decided to stop on the steps and give me a history lesson and tell me why Cincinnati are "faggotssssssssssssh" because the Browns are so great an organization. After we won there were numerous times we were hassled on the way to the car and I expected a couple to get nasty.

 

I've heard stories from other season ticket holders that Pittsburgh is just as bad. And one of the guy's in our section said he was in Jacksonville game and got assaulted after the game just because he had a Bengals jersey on.

 

Not worth it.

I only got booed once and it was by a chick who was absent-mindely razzing on me as she was flipping burgers.

 

Ha!

I went into Pro Player with my sister in 04' when the Steelers came to town and I have to say it felt like I was in Heinz Field. The crowd was pretty much split 50/50 and the heavy rain pretty much kept people from interacting and getting rowdy. Still though a pretty pathetic showing by the Phins fans, I only got booed once and it was by a chick who was absent-mindely razzing on me as she was flipping burgers. Though, I'll give Dolphins fans a pass they were under the tyranical thumb of Wansteidt and thus dispirited and depressed.

 

When the Steelers played the Chargers on MNF, I rode by the stadium (couldn't go, the game was sold out for months prior) and the crowd there was 70% Steeler fans.

 

I saw Terrible Towels around the county for weeks. And when the game was over, even though the Steelers won, they dissapeared.