Politics and sports should never go hand in hand. Sport is, in its consistency and values, the authentic engine that should unite and never separate or build barriers. Incidents in any type of stadium, anywhere in the world, are becoming more and more frequent, with political slogans that pit both fans against each other and the bearers against stadium security. Totally reprehensible on all sides.
But as always, when it comes to talking about sports or politics, like any other topic, in the United States everything is more and everything is bigger. Thus, it is not surprising that episodes like the one that occurred last weekend in the run-up to the game between the Rams and the Cardinals, when Susan Rosener, a fan of the latter and who attended the game with her husband, was prohibited from admission to the stadium for wearing a cap with Donal Trump’s motto “Make America Great Again”
The story
During the last day of the NFL league, Susan, a season ticket holder for the Arizona Cardinals, went to State Farm Stadium to watch the game against the Los Angeles Rams when, before entering, a member of security forced the fan to throw the trash the cap he was wearing with the aforementioned motto of the Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Donald Trump.
While the security member claimed to only comply with the club’s rules for entering the stadium, in the face of such commotion, it ended up being shown that the Cardinals’ official website does not include such a prohibition, which made an apology necessary from the club: “In an isolated incident before Sunday’s game, a member of stadium security misinterpreted one of the points regarding the policy on prohibited items. As in most venues, no ‘signs, banners, flags or exhibitions that are political in nature’. However, that did not apply in this case. Going forward, we will work to provide greater clarity to all stadium personnel in these situations,” the Cardinals spokesperson said.
Speaking to 12 News, the protagonist herself said: “I’m in favor of freedom of expression. I don’t care if someone has a Kamala Harris hat or t-shirt. I feel like part of the problem was that the security woman had a problem staff with my cap”.
The NFL also apologizes to the fan
The NFL is becoming an expert in solving controversy after controversy, whether racial, political or any other nature. That is why, practically immediately, shortly after the match began, he issued the pertinent apologies to the fan who feared losing her full season ticket. In the official note issued to Susan they write: “We recognize that the security member misinterpreted the rule, which focuses more on large political signs or flags, not personal clothing such as caps.”
Even in an attempt to surf the wave for future games, Kari Lake, Republican candidate for the United States Senate for the state of Arizona, expressed: “I hope that after this, all Arizona Cardinals fans wear hats with Trump’s motto to all parties.
