Patriots banning beer-throwing fan from Gillette Stadium is not enough for Tyreek Hill

Tyreek Hill is really fast, and really good at football. He torched the Patriots for three touchdowns on Sunday Night Football this week, including the game tying score late in the 4th quarter. After running for that last score, he ran towards the Optum Field Lounge. As you can imagine, the fans were not happy to see him. He was greeted by some angry gestures and even some flying liquid.

Hill has taken exception with that and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, released a statement about it yesterday. Hill is certainly not the first to have some beverage thrown on him. Any time a visiting player ends up in or near the stands after scoring a touchdown, bad things tend to happen. Just watch the first play from this clip.

Now the fan that did this should have been kicked out of the game, and, if they are a season ticket holder, should have their tickets taken away – which seems like has already happened: the Patriots issued a statement saying that they had identified the fan responsible, they would be “disinvited” from all future Gillette Stadium events.

This is the right thing to do. That’s unacceptable behavior from a fan, no matter the situation. You want to say something? Fine. But you can’t throw anything onto the field, or throw anything at any player or coach. Think of what he’s missing out on. Every Patriots game, every Revs game, every concert. That’s a steep price to pay for a few seconds of being a tough guy.

However, to imply that anything else should happen, as Hill and Rosenhaus have done, is a little over the top. Rosenhaus said that “that type of behavior is unacceptable. The players have to be protected. We want that fan to be prosecuted.” I know that wasting beer is a party foul, but I hardly think it requires criminal prosecution. Some people have brought up the fact that Hill was accused of some bad behavior as well, but that does not apply here.

The fact is that what the fan did was stupid and unacceptable. As a season ticket holder, I don’t want some idiot like that representing the fan base, but that doesn’t mean he should go to jail or pay some sort of serious fine. As fans, let’s try to remember that the players play the game, and there’s no reason for us to get involved in what they’re doing. The ugliness of The Malice at the Palace and the Charles Woodson and Lincoln Kennedy incident in 1999 (probably worth a google) should have taught us that by now.

And players should also know better than to go towards the stands to celebrate, with all the drunk people and idiots there, it’s not worth the risk.

Pat is the host of the Weekend Warrior Podcast

Interact with him on Twitter @wtplane