Essay On Sports Riots

It’s late at night June 14th, 1994, Vancouver, Canada. 70,000 angry, rioting canadians takes to the street. Policemen try to calm the angry mob down and disperse them, but to no avail. Stores on streets have their windows smashed, goods stolen, and the riot police are called onto the scene. The authorities only able to disperse the mob the following morning. Two hundred injuries are reported and 1.58 million dollars of damage was done. You might be asking why this great social unrest happened. An unfair election? a national tragedy? war? No, none of these are true. It was because Vancouver’s hockey team lost to the Long Island Rangers in the Stanley Cup. Of course, sports are a vital part of many people’s lives.But is it really a situation which can affect your whole entire life? The clear answer is no. Sports fans are clearly taking the game so seriously that it is unhealthy.
Behavior like this is widespread and is deeply rooted into society. One of the earliest recorded sport related riots was the Nika Riots, where on January 13th, AD 532, enraged roman citizens, angered at the imprisonment of several athletes, tried to overthrow the emperor.When it was finally put down a week later, it had caused 30,000 deaths, and the burning of much of Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul, Turkey). (University of Chicago) Furthermore, In Brazil, the loss 2-1 to Uruguay in the world cup, “The Maracanazo”, is considered such a tragedy that it is often considered to 9/11,and caused widespread riots. (Duke University). Anger also lingers after games, sometimes lasting for weeks. Some devoted fans have even took their own life after bad games. In 2013, when Manchester United lost to New Castle in association football, Suleiman Omondi, a Kenyan Manchester United Fan, took his own life a