Hope He Never Goes to a Raiders Game

Everyone remembers the story from last January in which a student in a Pittsburgh area high school wore a Denver Broncos jersey to school during the week leading up to the AFC Championship game.

Now the little baby 18-year old student, who has subsequently transferred to a new school -- apparently one in which Broncos fans are more accepted -- is suing the Big Beaver Falls Area School District and, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report is "is seeking a declaration that the defendants violated his rights; damages in excess of $25,000; punitive damages against the individual defendants and attorney fees and court costs."

As someone who has rooted for the Pittsburgh Steelers his entire life, despite having lived outside of Pittsburgh for more than twenty years, let me just say that the kid is lucky that he wasn't pelted with something more harmful than notebook paper. Indeed, I can remember attending a Monday night game between the San Diego Chargers and the (then) Los Angeles Raiders at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at which a Chargers fan had their recently purchased Chargers souvenir pennant set on fire. To add insult to injury the Chargers fan was removed from the stadium for having incited the Raiders lunatics sitting around him.

The morale of the story is that if you are going to publicly support a team other than the home team you had better be tough enough to accept the response that you are going get -- even when it's at the hands of a teacher. After all, teaching is just a profession, being a Steelers fan is for life!