In the 1990s I went to a college football game in Tucson,...

In the 1990s I went to a college football game in Tucson, Arizona. Now, the hometown quarterback had fired off a handgun in a supermarket carpark. He wasn't even arrested because of the upcoming game.

At the game, the crowd cheered (don't remember any boos) & it was about 35-40000 people. When the game ended, the crowd got up, back seats first, and exited in an incredibly orderly manner. And this was in a violent society, 4-6 murders in a city of 400,000 each week. I was tenseish just walking around the streets, especially since there were no footpaths. Or streetlights (nearby telescopes).

Round about that time, the SF earthquake occurred. The lights failed at a huge baseball game (World Series?), emergency generators gave power for sound, nobody panicked or left and they sat and sang, with the occasional news report about a collapsed freeway. Where most of the fatalitities were incurred.

I had no time for the US as a Society (still less now), but the behaviour of sports crowds was just incredibly good and disciplined by Worldwide standards.

Sorry to have blathered, HAGWA,

pmd3nka