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00:00Welcome to The Whole Story. I'm Anderson Cooper. The NFL season began just last month and already
00:04there have been a number of viral videos of fights between rival fans, including this one of the
00:09Texans Rams game, which left a female fan injured and bloodied after the brawl. It's not just
00:14football. Baseball fields, soccer pitches, violent altercations are happening at sporting events all
00:19over the country, causing serious injuries, even death in some cases. It's left many wondering if
00:25it's too dangerous to bring their families to cheer on their favorite teams. In this next hour,
00:30CNN's Ed Lavendera takes us inside this disturbing dynamic from the stadiums where it starts to the
00:35streets where it spreads and talks to both the victims of this senseless violence and the fans
00:41who know what it's like to lose control of their emotions when it comes to the game.
00:45Some of the images you'll see in this hour may be disturbing.
00:55We are in Detroit, Michigan, and this city is on fire.
01:14We're in the midst of the NFL playoff season, just a few hours away from the kickoff between the
01:20Detroit Lions and the Washington Commanders. Huge game.
01:24One of the things that I wanted to explore with this, I grew up a huge sports fan as a kid.
01:36I love the Dallas Cowboys. Over the years, as I've gotten older, something's happened.
01:42These sporting events didn't feel the same to me. There's just something that was off.
01:46And then I started kind of noticing what seemed to me to be like an uptick in the amount of fights.
01:54It's really intense. Some have been deadly. Some have left people's lives completely shattered and changed.
02:14I wanted to explore whether or not these sporting events are any less or more dangerous.
02:19Like, what's going on?
02:20Let's go Lions on three. One, two, three.
02:22Go Lions!
02:24You don't have any concerns bringing your kids out here?
02:27No, we've seen a few, but they're few and far between.
02:30When you see the drama sometimes, there's other teams coming in.
02:33I think we all agree, it's sometimes too many cocktails.
02:36And then that escalates, and then there's an argument, and then that kind of turns into one, two, and three.
02:42Hey, hey, hey!
02:43Is this something that is an epidemic, or is this just because of the proliferation of social media and everybody has a phone and a camera in their pocket?
02:53I think that's a great question and worth exploring.
02:56But regardless of whether or not it's gone up or it's gone down, it is happening.
03:01In 2024, 52 professional stadium security officials responded to a survey.
03:0870% of participants said they felt fan behavior was worse now than five years ago.
03:13And fan violence is not just in the U.S., Europe, and the United Kingdom are notorious for fans fighting during soccer games.
03:21To understand how moments like that erupt, you have to walk in these crowds.
03:26You have to get up close to the front lines as you possibly can.
03:29And to do that, I thought of one person in particular, a man, a journalist by the name of Bill Buford.
03:34He wrote a book years ago called Among the Thugs.
03:37He immersed himself in this world of British soccer hooliganism.
03:41And he experienced some of the most violent incidents at sporting events in a visceral way.
03:47The first games I started going to were here at Chelsea.
03:49It was the shed, and there were no seats, and it was remarkably filthy, and you got compressed with every male, bloated human body.
03:59So intimate and so powerful and smelly.
04:03There's a kind of magical strength that comes to you when you're a member of a crowd, which is a little bit like going to war.
04:11I think you've seen it in American sports.
04:16There's a kind of restless energy and an undefined power.
04:20Now I'm ready to go to work.
04:33You know how to handle this.
04:35I'm used to this.
04:36You know what you're doing.
04:37Right.
04:37This is all a part of the price you pay.
04:39I'm built for this.
04:41Grew up with the hometown team.
04:43My father used to take me to the games when I was a kid.
04:46That was when they played at the old Tiger Stadium over on Michigan and Trumbull.
04:50My oldest son, Alexander, he went to his first game at three months old.
04:54That's funny.
04:54I grew up a Cowboys fan, and my parents would take me.
04:57I won't hold that against you.
04:58I appreciate that.
04:59I guess it's just part of, like, that family history experiences that connect us to these sports and these events.
05:06The Lions are part of the fabric of Detroit.
05:08If you're a natural, native Detroiter, you grew up cheering for the Lions through good, bad, you know.
05:15And a lot of bad.
05:16And a lot of bad.
05:17If this city were to win a Super Bowl, I mean, that would be, like, world peace in Detroit.
05:22Yeah, yeah.
05:24Let's go!
05:25This is Eastern Market.
05:27This has always been a very big central area for tailgaters.
05:31Typically, on game days, this area would be teeming with people.
05:36I mean, it doesn't feel like a playoff tailgate to me out here right now.
05:39No.
05:40I have video footage from when I walked through the market last year during the playoffs.
05:44It was a party.
05:46Pat.
05:47What happened?
05:48Shooting.
05:50A man shot into popular tailgating area in Eastern Market.
05:55Police say after a confrontation, killing two people.
05:58So it was going all well, good vibes.
06:00Everybody was having fun, drinking, enjoying themselves.
06:03And then everything just went left.
06:05As I was going up Wilkins here and got to Orleans, I saw an ambulance and police car come.
06:11And that's what happened.
06:13One shooting undid all of that.
06:15It's got to make you a little sad to see it like this.
06:18It is, because coming to the tailgate, for a lot of us, particularly when the team wasn't doing well, that was the best part of the game.
06:27I found Lions fan Fahad Youssef tailgating on the other side of Eastern Market.
06:34Eastern Market, Strat 2.
06:36Best Lions tailgate in the city.
06:38Heck yeah.
06:38So you're out here all the time, every game?
06:42Yeah, as of late, this is the spot.
06:44This season has been a little bit rough for you, though, right?
06:48It's been challenging.
06:50Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:51What's happened?
06:52I had an incident, got my season tickets revoked.
06:55You got your season tickets revoked?
06:57Yeah, I was seeing the ticket holder, got my tickets taken away because of a small incident on the field.
07:03That incident went viral.
07:05Who are you talking to like that?
07:07It's a fan.
07:09Youssef was on the field as a perk of his ticket package, which allowed him to choose one add-on bonus for the 2024 season.
07:18I was on the field for the Packers game at home, and I was just walking past the Packers sideline,
07:26talking a little crap, telling them they're going down.
07:29We're sweeping them.
07:31The Green Bay Packers head coach saw Youssef taunting his players with a throat-slashing motion.
07:37And Matt LaFleur did not like that.
07:40He came at me a couple times.
07:42I was having fun.
07:43I thought it was all in good fun, but no, he wasn't feeling it.
07:48I got to do whatever I can, get back into the stadium.
07:52300 level, guy not breathing.
07:56What is it about a team like this that just brings out this much passion in you?
08:13I mean, a team like this has gone through so much.
08:17It's gone through so much adversity.
08:19Let's go!
08:22This is what it means, baby!
08:24This is what it means for me!
08:26Let's go, baby!
08:27Come on!
08:29That's your answer right there!
08:30That's your answer!
08:31Fahad Youssef says he couldn't help himself once he got close to the rival team.
08:36What made you want to talk smack in that moment to this other coach and the other team?
08:42Other teams, just Packers, biggest rivals, are just right there on the other side from me, 10 yards away.
08:48So, just talking a little junk to him.
08:51And he gave it back to you a little bit?
08:54Oh, yeah, he was happy.
08:55I was having fun.
08:56I thought it was all in good fun, but no, he wasn't feeling it.
09:00He was talking junk to our players.
09:04I thought it was pretty unsportsmanlike.
09:06Like, I've never seen that.
09:07I've been on many fields, and usually they police that much better.
09:12The NFL does try to do that.
09:15In 2008, the league implemented a code of conduct to keep fans from acting out in stadiums.
09:21Violators can be ejected from the game and have their season tickets revoked.
09:26Youssef was removed from the field at halftime.
09:29You can't have season tickets anymore?
09:31No, I can't have season tickets anymore.
09:33Forever?
09:34Forever.
09:35Oh, that's got to hurt.
09:38It does, but hey, I've made some awesome friends, brothers.
09:42Like, look at this crew, this support system.
09:45Come on, we're still here, we're good to go, baby.
09:49Youssef was also banned from attending any NFL games
09:53until he took the league's $250 code of conduct class.
09:58Enacted in 2012, it requires fans tossed for unruly behavior to take an online course
10:04covering topics like game day empathy, stress management, and alcohol abuse.
10:10What kinds of things are they telling you in this NFL class?
10:14And it's just, like, anxiety.
10:17Sometimes you can get some anxiety before games and how to control that and binge drinking,
10:22which sometimes happens a lot.
10:24Do you think it happens too often?
10:25It does happen too often, yeah, yeah.
10:27Have you, like, stopped and thought about what it is about sports
10:31that makes us want to do what you did that day?
10:36You've got to love a sports team.
10:38It's got to run deep, you know, so it brings out the craziness in all of us sometimes.
10:44Youssef completed the conduct course about a week after the incident on the field.
10:48I got my certificate, you know, I'm a good fan.
10:51The certification is a badge of honor.
10:54He can now purchase single NFL game day tickets again.
10:57What does it say?
10:58A certificate of completion, Ford Field fan code of conduct class.
11:03It's kind of opened my eyes to, like, the bigger picture.
11:07So you pay a little bit more attention to where the lines of good behavior are?
11:10Sure, sure, back there.
11:12Bill Buford knows extreme team identity can trigger extreme behavior.
11:18It's one of the reasons some fans crossed the line.
11:21If you're a Yankee fan and you're going to the World Series and the Dodgers beat your Yankees,
11:26you feel that deeply and you're depressed for weeks.
11:29It's an engagement with your team.
11:31That's an intense feeling that these sporting events bring out in people.
11:34With a certain kind of audience.
11:36Male, certain age, adrenaline, needing to establish supremacy.
11:42This is the Detroit Police Department's real-time crime center.
11:46We're able to monitor crime in real time.
11:49This right here is the nerve center.
11:52It's Detroit Lions game day.
11:54I imagine this is a serious night here in Detroit.
11:57Very serious.
11:58The Ford Field security is excellent, second to none.
12:01We have well over 100 officers at any given point assigned inside.
12:06On top of the security officers, I think that we do a great job here intervening very, very quickly.
12:11And I'm not aware of anybody seriously being hurt here at all, other than the one incident in our Eastern Market District area.
12:19In that situation, it was the tailgating area for the Lions game?
12:23Yes, yes.
12:23What made that situation escalate?
12:26Argument and, you know, individuals having weapons.
12:29And one of the things that we did is created areas of gun-free zones.
12:33Also, the adding of the high-density weapons detectors.
12:37That right there, we haven't seen any issues since.
12:40When your officers are watching stuff unfold on these cameras tonight, like, they know things can go bad very quickly.
12:46They're monitoring.
12:47They're monitoring for, you know, elevated voices, and they're not going to wait just for the first blow, per se.
12:52Even if a little brawl broke out, we're there to break it up so quickly.
12:56And it's consequences when you do that.
12:58You don't get a second time to do it because you get banned.
13:01You're not going to be back in there fighting again.
13:03We'll put you on a list.
13:04Your butt won't be there.
13:05How many people are on that list?
13:06You can ask Ford Field.
13:08Ask the Lions about that one.
13:09We did reach out to Ford Field and the Lions and the National Football League.
13:14In fact, we contacted all four major sports leagues, but they all declined to speak with us.
13:20But I did speak with a Major League Baseball security source, a source who can't speak on camera, but did say fan violence is on the rise.
13:28And the source also added that sports leagues know this is a big problem, but they don't want it to get any attention.
13:34We haven't seen really an uptick of it.
13:38You don't think so?
13:39I don't know.
13:40I think that everything that happens now is captured immediately because everybody has a cell phone with a 4K camera on it.
13:49People pull their camera phones out and it's uploaded to social media immediately.
13:53It's kind of part of the journey that we're on here is trying to figure out what could rise to the level of wanting to create a situation in a scene where you come to blows with somebody.
14:04Turn that shit off.
14:06We are outside Gillette Stadium, which you see behind me.
14:09This is home to the New England Patriots.
14:12And I think it's safe to say that it's also home to one of the most intense fan bases in the NFL.
14:22It's where Patriots fan Dale Mooney, husband and father of two, and a season ticket holder for 30 years, went to the game with friends and never came home after a fight in the stands.
14:35It was at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night.
14:38I met up with an eyewitness at a sports bar across from Gillette Stadium.
14:42This is the video you shot that night.
14:44Yeah.
14:45It's right there immediately when I started.
14:47I was up in the 300 section.
14:49We were playing the Dolphins and it was a pretty normal game.
14:53The Patriots were down from what I can remember, which has become typical, sadly.
14:57And I had noticed people arguing throughout the game, but that's common.
15:01I didn't think anything of it.
15:02Security had intervened a few times.
15:04Mr. Moody, he was kind of heading over to the next section and, you know, willingly engaging in the fight.
15:10And then the other people were kind of, if you want to come over here and do this, let's do this.
15:14And the next thing I know, the fight shifted to the next section.
15:17What were people arguing about?
15:18What were they fighting about?
15:19Once I noticed he had a Dolphin shirt and he had a Patriots jersey, it was self-explanatory.
15:24You're three rows away and this thing is escalating.
15:30Yeah.
15:31It was 10 o'clock roughly on a Sunday night and I think just alcohol time.
15:36At that point, the Dolphins were winning and I think they were rubbing it in and somebody just didn't want to hear it.
15:42Were there people trying to break it up or there?
15:45I believe the Dolphins fan's friend was trying to pull him off and trying to separate them.
15:50It just looks like a sea of people.
15:52Yeah, I was able to get closer, as you can tell.
15:56And then the final seconds of the video, you can see Mr. Moody slumped over.
16:00We got an EMC coming 300 level.
16:02They're performing CPR right now.
16:04As the paramedics came, people lied him down underneath the seats on the flat surface.
16:08So the paramedics were able to perform CPR.
16:10Do you feel like sporting events are becoming more violent?
16:15I think the drinking, it's becoming an intense atmosphere.
16:18I think the aspect of people gambling on sports betting is definitely contributing to people's anger.
16:24And it's not as much a friendly, ha-ha, you're from a different city rivalry.
16:29It's your team cost me money and now I can't pay my rent.
16:31It's contributing to higher rage at games.
16:34You come to a sporting event and you witness someone lose their life.
16:38Yeah, it's not what you plan on, obviously.
16:40It's a mix of a lot of bad things that lead to people making bad decisions.
16:44And I think that's unfortunately what we saw that night.
16:47Dale Mooney's death here at Gillette Stadium was originally ruled a homicide.
16:52But since then, prosecutors have uncovered more evidence.
16:55The autopsy showed that Dale Mooney died of a heart condition.
16:59And other video evidence from other cameras inside the stadium
17:02that captured the full picture of how it all unfolded.
17:06That stadium video is very clear.
17:08He can focus in really close so he can see exactly what happened.
17:12My client was just simply trying to defend a friend of his
17:15who got attacked by somebody who wasn't involved in the initial fight.
17:19It became pretty clear that they'd probably never,
17:21that the government could never prevail at a trial.
17:23I think that became apparent.
17:24We attempted to reach the prosecutor in this case, but never got a response.
17:29The criminal charges against the two men who were originally facing charges for Mooney's death have been dropped.
17:36Do you think that you see a lot of fans that are just looking to pick a fight?
17:39You put 60,000 people into a stadium, you're going to have that one guy that's looking to start trouble.
17:44It's statistics.
17:45The drama of witnessing violence close up really agitates the whole psyche and the body and adrenaline.
17:53And drinking does have the effect of not suspending the brakes.
17:57We see fights at a concert or a bar.
17:59But I think the violence that we see at sporting events is different.
18:02It's almost like a continuation of the sport.
18:04It's whatever's going on in the match and all the frustrations of the match.
18:07Tragedy of defeat.
18:08You're participating in the game even though you're a spectator.
18:13It is not safe to take your family to the games anymore.
18:17You got to the point when you were writing your book Among the Thugs.
18:35I felt like you got the sense that you could almost figure out when things were about to erupt.
18:40I could see it on his face.
18:42Something bad here was going to happen.
18:44Some of the videos that we showed you, the violence at American sporting events.
18:50What do you think is behind that?
18:52I think what you're seeing is kind of a contagion of violence.
18:57Ten years ago, people were arguing.
18:59You know, they had some bad words between them.
19:01They would maybe get sulky or swear or, you know, storm off.
19:07But now it goes pretty quickly to violence.
19:09And once that's planted, it's quite hard to eradicate.
19:14One of the first really violent incidents that captured my attention years ago happened here at AT&T Stadium.
19:21The Dallas Cowboys were playing the New England Patriots in October of 2015.
19:26The Cowboys had just lost that game 30-6.
19:30But there was a sea of fans out here tailgating, eating, and drinking throughout the afternoon.
19:36The night ended in a deadly shooting.
19:40I had my back turned.
19:41Out I heard was a gunshot.
19:43The security definitely needs to be stepped up.
19:45People come here with guns.
19:46Victoria Gunning's brother, Richard, went to that game with his fiancée, who was five months pregnant at the time.
19:57One of his friends called and said they had a booth set up out there to come out and enjoy the day with them.
20:03I saw pictures of my brother having fun, everybody out there just having a good time, never dreaming that he was going to lose his life that day.
20:15So where did all this go down, Matt?
20:17So we'll pull up right here.
20:20It was a 3 o'clock kickoff.
20:22People start showing up at the tailgate sometime around noon.
20:25Lots of alcohol involved.
20:27You can actually pull onto the grass, and that's where people will, like, kind of unload their tailgates onto the concrete.
20:32The defendant, Marvin Rodriguez, and a group of his family and friends were out there.
20:37The victim, Richard Sells, had some loose affiliation with Marvin and his family.
20:43They watch outside.
20:45People continue to drink and cook.
20:47As the game is concluding and the sun's starting to go down, Arlington Police Department, who's out there doing security, trying to get people to kind of wrap it up.
20:57Marvin's brother, Candido, who was intoxicated, was not happy about having to leave the tailgate, and he started a verbal argument that a large fight breaks out.
21:11CNN obtained dramatic cell phone and police dash cam footage.
21:15It played a crucial role in the criminal trial.
21:18There's several different groups of people fighting.
21:20There are police that are responding to the fight because at this point it had been going on for approximately 20 minutes.
21:26A 20-minute fight?
21:27A 20-minute fight.
21:28I mean, shirts are coming off.
21:30Beers are being thrown.
21:32Piles of five or six people in various different sets of fights.
21:37It's pandemonium.
21:38Marvin is involved.
21:40He's fighting.
21:40At some point he gets pretty beat up.
21:42He leaves where the skirmish is, and he goes to his car, and he gets a gun, and he comes back.
21:49I pull out a gun right now, too.
21:51What the f***?
21:52Marvin somehow makes his way over to where Richard Sells is.
21:57He goes behind him, kind of wraps his arm around, and sticks a gun to the left side of his neck.
22:04He pulls the trigger at some point as Richard Sells is on one knee.
22:08As the first patrol officer is pulling into the lot, shots are fired.
22:13When a shot rings out, the defendant tried to jump over one of these walls, and that's kind of where he dropped the gun.
22:20The dash camera actually shows him right after the shots are fired, and you see Richard Sells on the ground.
22:27The victim was on the ground right over here?
22:28Right here, yeah, in this little lot.
22:30The squad car actually pulls up right here, like at the edge of the street, and they're trying to block it off so emergency medical personnel can come in and tend to him.
22:40They don't know if he's going to live or die at the point, and he's being tended to by his wife or fiancé at the time.
22:46And did he die at the scene?
22:48He did go to the hospital.
22:49It was clearly like a very fatal wound.
22:51The shooter, Marvin Rodriguez, was taken into custody and charged with murder in the shooting death of Richard Sells.
22:58Nobody expects a gun to be pulled out in one of those things.
23:01Like, you fight, you punch each other in the face, and you go home.
23:03I don't think anybody thought that it would go this far.
23:07When the shooter was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison, did you find justice in that verdict?
23:14Even then, I thought it was a slap on the wrist.
23:18I mean, it's cold-blooded murder.
23:21Our family is destroyed.
23:24I mean, the other tragedy of all this is that your brother had a child who is never going to get to know her father.
23:30That's right.
23:31He would have been a great dad.
23:34She lost every opportunity to know what an awesome dad she would have had.
23:44Nine years after the shooter was convicted, sentenced to prison, he got a new trial.
23:50Yes, sir.
23:51In the second trial, Marvin Rodriguez, the shooter in this case, actually put on a self-defense case.
23:58And that actually helped him this time around.
24:00He was convicted, not of murder, but of a lesser charge of manslaughter, and was sentenced to only 10 years probation.
24:07So he was allowed to go free.
24:10I was shocked, devastated, appalled.
24:14And according to court files, Rodriguez's probation does not prevent him from attending sporting events.
24:23Efforts to reach Rodriguez or schedule an interview with his attorneys were unsuccessful despite repeated attempts.
24:29To make sure I'm clear on this, the fight starts when Marvin Rodriguez's brother throws a beer can?
24:33Yes.
24:34I mean, you know, not to put too fine a point on it, but like, it all just seems so stupid.
24:38It is tragic stupidity.
24:40We see it a lot across the country that these sorts of incidents happen.
24:44In some situations, it could be people who are rival fans, but in this case, everyone was a Cowboys fan.
24:49I think the main factor was alcohol.
24:52You have way, way too much time to be out there.
24:58What do you want people to know about what happened to your brother?
25:01That it is not safe to take your family to the games anymore.
25:05My brother was an innocent victim, viciously murdered.
25:11It's a horrible, senseless shame.
25:20Was I a hooligan?
25:21Yeah, I was.
25:22Well, no, for having a one arrow.
25:23As we continue on our journey into exploring sports fandom, we had to come to London, England, because this is the origin, one of the places that has been the most notorious when it comes to the craziest and most rabid of fans.
25:47In January, violent clashes between fans of rival clubs, Manchester United and the Scottish Rangers Football Club, erupted on social media.
26:01Dozens of soccer fans were arrested.
26:04And then in May, riled up fans left a trail of damage ahead of the Europa League final between Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United.
26:17We're on our way to one of the final games of the season for West Ham United here in East London.
26:24West Ham United and its fan base has been involved in some of the more notorious violent incidents in recent years.
26:35Like this huge brawl that erupted in the stands and then went viral during last year's West Ham thriller against rival club Arsenal.
26:47Fan violence appears to be on the rise in the United Kingdom.
26:51According to government data, during the 2023-2024 soccer season, there was a 42% increase in public disorder arrests compared to the season before.
27:02I feel like even in the last year, there seems to have been a resurgence of violence.
27:07Have you seen that?
27:08I don't know if it's a resurgence so much as it hasn't ever really gone away.
27:12The big wake-up call was in the Euros, the 2020 Euros that the final was here in London.
27:19It was a very big moment where England might actually win a trophy.
27:24He says the hysteria combined with pent-up COVID-19 lockdown frustration
27:29resulted in thousands of ticketless, rabid fans storming Wembley Stadium.
27:34To think that every Saturday there are these arenas with thousands and thousands of people
27:47watching a live game in which the outcome can reverse in the last minute, in the last seconds.
27:52There might be spoiled chances.
27:53There'll be penalty kicks which are missed.
27:55The game itself is so difficult to win and score.
27:59It's different from American sports, which always feel like you're being fed sugar.
28:02This is like, you know, you've got to get there, you've got to get there, and you don't get there.
28:07And that produces so much adrenaline and frustration.
28:13What's happening in the states is different because it's not group violence.
28:18The stuff that I was seeing when I did my own investigation,
28:21it might involve 200 people, 1,000 people, 2,000 people, 4,000 people.
28:27The violence that I witnessed in the 80s was as much a social thing as it was a football thing.
28:36I went into it with all the obvious theories.
28:39This was during Margaret Thatcher's Britain,
28:41and it was a tough time for a lot of people who didn't have a lot of money.
28:45This is the disenfranchised.
28:46This is how they're expressing themselves.
28:48This is the angry people.
28:49And they were not disenfranchised, and they were not poor, and they were not angry.
28:54They had good jobs.
28:55They had families.
28:56They read.
28:56They had opinions.
28:57But for a moment, it became a fashion.
29:02And they would gather in huge numbers to participate in this experience.
29:08It took a long time for them to admit that one of their most exciting pastimes
29:13was to meet in gigantic gatherings and beat each other up.
29:16I would ask them things like, you know, what is your strategy?
29:19What do you do?
29:20They used to fight for a long time, but now they have to bring knives
29:23because they only got a really quick chance to get into a fight and succeed and get out.
29:28I remember most vividly when West Ham came to Manchester.
29:32That was a piece of orchestrated wonder.
29:35All the Man United fans were hanging out at a pub.
29:38Nobody was being too explicit about why they were there.
29:41But they were there because at 1.33, the train from London was arriving.
29:47They knew that West Ham would be coming down this ramp.
29:49And suddenly you had a mob of 2,000 people.
29:51And they all started going up to the station, marching, marching, faster, faster, chanting, chanting.
29:59And then it's the same, kill, kill, kill, kill.
30:03And I was trying to get up to the front and try to get up to the front.
30:04And suddenly they went, Jakes, ah!
30:08It was just one of the many mob scenes Buford witnessed.
30:12He eventually made his way deeper into a Manchester United hooligan firm, as they called it.
30:18He traveled with the ringleaders to a match in Turin, Italy.
30:22It was a windy, dark night.
30:25I realized that the fans were held back because that was the practice.
30:29You hold back the visiting fans so they don't engage with the home fans.
30:33This man with his family, he could see what was coming.
30:36And they were getting close.
30:38And then they just run over him.
30:41Run over him.
30:42I've never seen people getting kicked in the head close up.
30:46It's not getting kicked in the head like you see in a movie.
30:49It's a soft sound.
30:51It's like sneakers on human tissue or on hair.
30:54It's a completely, somehow it's so much more graphic and disturbing.
31:00How many of those types of sporting tragedies have, have occurred here?
31:08Well, Heisel Stadium is the other big tragedy.
31:10That was Liverpool fans having a go at some Italian fans.
31:14It turned out to be sort of elderly Italian men and families.
31:19It's so violent the structure gave way and people were crushed to death.
31:22Well, he's talking about the 1985 disaster at the European Cup final at Heisel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
31:31A wall collapsed when Italian soccer fans were trying to escape an attack from Liverpool fans, killing 39 people.
31:39Nearly four years later, England's Hillsborough Stadium became the scene of the deadliest incident in British sports history.
31:5297 Liverpool soccer fans were crushed to death in the overcrowded stadium, many by a wall that collapsed.
31:59Fans were being pushed in and pushed in, closed up against the fence.
32:02And then people had tried to lift someone over the top who'd passed out.
32:06It was horrific.
32:08This was the whole concept of the terraces.
32:10I'd never seen anything like it.
32:12Terraces were just steps.
32:13Just steps that go all the way up, all the way down.
32:16There was nothing like a fire regulation.
32:18The Hillsborough disaster prompted the British government to enact a series of changes at UK stadiums.
32:24They abolished the terraces.
32:26They introduced seats.
32:27They stopped alcohol.
32:28The police presence has now become much more sophisticated.
32:30More civilized.
32:31More civilized.
32:32I mean, the people are actually wearing quite nice clothes today.
32:35The tickets are much higher.
32:37They'll be televised.
32:38There's a father with a couple of children.
32:41There's more children.
32:43There's more children.
32:44They introduced civility.
32:46I'm on the train to Manchester, England, home of Manchester United Football Club.
32:50And this is one of the most storied, recognizable sports franchises in the entire world.
32:57And the team stadium, Old Trafford, is also hallowed ground for many football fans.
33:02What does it feel like coming back?
33:04Exciting.
33:06We're approaching the corner of the pitch here where Eric Cantonev was kicking a corner or Giggs or Beckham.
33:15Where would you sit?
33:17Oh, you know, when I was coming, it was where did you stand?
33:20When you have 74,000 fans in a stadium like this, is controlling those passions a little bit concerning at times?
33:29It is.
33:30I mean, if you go back to the 1970s when we had a lot of hooliganism and a lot of issues with rival sets of fans, we don't tend to have that.
33:38Maybe somebody's had a few too many drinks or something like that.
33:41But generally speaking, there's very little.
33:44I'm kind of fascinated.
33:45As an American fan, if I went to a sporting event, you're going to have opposing fans kind of mingled with each other.
33:52But here, they're segregated?
33:54Yeah.
33:54I mean, you look behind you, you'll see the segregation.
33:57It's literally green netting on the feet in there.
33:59So you'll have a row of security staff just literally separating the home and the away fans.
34:06I kind of like the intimacy.
34:07I like being in a crowd where you could feel the response of every spectator around you.
34:13When you got in here, it was, I don't know, it was a little bit like going to church.
34:16And, you know, I got in with a group of people, and most of them I liked, these bastards.
34:23They were my friends, and I felt a perverse kind of community here.
34:29As we arrived here in Manchester, we were surprised to see one of Bill's old friends waiting for us at the train station.
34:35You're looking well, man.
34:37Was I a hooligan?
34:38Yeah, I was, but I like to think I was a bit of a gentleman rather than a thug.
34:42I was well known for having a one arrow.
34:44So if you come near me, you're going to get put down.
34:47How did you enter this world?
34:48How did you get into this?
34:49I ran away from home when I was 14, and I came to Manchester.
34:52And right on that corner up there, I was watching some kids from Salford picking pockets.
34:57It was like right out of Oliver Twist.
34:59I've started following these kids, and we're going around the back alleys empty in wallets.
35:02We were feral, and I was sort of rejected as a child.
35:04You know, these kids and these people became my family.
35:07This institution, you become a part of it.
35:09So following Manchester United for free, basically, became your sport.
35:14It was, yeah.
35:15It was like a fix.
35:16It was like a drug.
35:17And then you have to start coming every week, and it becomes more powerful and kind of spiritual connection to it.
35:22Something led me here to this space, to this energy, because I couldn't identify with religion,
35:28with the invisible concept of God and praying for things that you never get.
35:31At least here, I got something.
35:33I got fulfilled.
35:34Violent fans aren't just a football problem.
35:38When we come back to the story of a baseball lover who almost died because he was a San Francisco Giants fan.
35:45I got fulfilled.
35:57I wake up every morning, and I lay there thinking, what have I done to deserve this?
36:04the deep scars and damage are still visible more than 14 years after the attack
36:12my short-term memory is not good you can ask me some that happened 40 years ago and i could tell
36:20you but i don't remember what i had for dinner last night were you always a sports fan baseball
36:27i was born a san francisco giant fan what is it about sports that you love so much
36:31the camaraderie i'm surprised to hear you like you go to games often or as often as i can
36:37unfortunately i don't drive anymore so i'm ready to drive right now but apparently my mom says
36:44i'm not and i go when am i going to be ready she didn't know didn't have an answer for me
36:50you might recall the story of san francisco giants fan brian stowe
36:56back in 2011 stowe and some friends traveled down to los angeles for opening day his beloved
37:04giants were playing the dodgers little did he know that wearing the giants colors as he left
37:10the stadium that night would make him a target i was wearing the obtrusive fans colors and dodgers
37:18and giants have been at war ever since they started in new york can you take me back to the day that
37:24this happened to you do you remember the game itself that day boom wiped it from my brain
37:29yet stowe gives a vivid account he's heard the story countless times from friends who were with
37:36him that night march 31st 2011 i was a paramedic at the time myself and three other paramedics from
37:42santa clara county drove a car down to los angeles to watch the giants hopefully crush the dodgers
37:48the giants end up losing that game and we're walking back to the car and they heard somebody
37:54running up behind us according to his friend stowe was blindsided by two men in the parking lot
37:59wearing dodgers jerseys he was punched in the head collapsed and kicked in the head three more times
38:05he's breathing he's got a pulse but he's not conscious we need an ambulance right now
38:10stowe was beaten so severely that part of his skull had to be removed he was placed in a medically
38:17induced coma after surgery you spent nine months in a coma yeah my parents didn't know if i would
38:24make it alive i guess surprise how are you able to laugh about what you've what you've been through
38:32with what happened to me you have to be humorous because i could be at home lulling over this my
38:38life sucks i'm in pain and stuff but it helps to be funny it gets me through it i have to come up with
38:44new jokes because a lot of times my mom's like i've heard that one two three the 56 year old former
38:52paramedic and father of two divorced before the incident has been cared for by his parents and sisters
38:58since he left the hospital when i was 18 and moved out it was like later and then i wake up from my
39:05coma and i'm back at their house in my old room
39:09still had to relearn how to walk and talk pink step have you ever gotten a rundown of all of the
39:18injuries you suffered yes i had brain surgery my knee wouldn't bend now my knee can bend that much
39:25my shoulder was screwed up i had this shoulder done now i can move it that high only my hands are
39:31messed up i had this done tracheotomy i just can't help but think like how in the world did you survive
39:38this darn lucky i guess you kick back brian stowe has made a remarkable recovery but shouldn't comeback
39:46stories be the tales we tell about the athletes on the field not the fans who simply come to watch them
39:52play okay how's that at the time the horrific incident sparked a massive manhunt by the los angeles
40:01police department they scoured the city looking for the men who attacked stowe i'm asking the fans
40:08that may have some information to please come forward investigators chased hundreds of leads
40:15and two months later in july 2011 after eyewitness accounts police arrested louis sanchez and marvin
40:24norwood yes for the savage attack of brian stowe a photograph that shows a taped off area parking lot
40:312014 the tragedy played out in a courtroom defense attorneys argued there were two altercations and the
40:38taunting was on both sides but the suspects incriminated themselves while in custody unaware they were
40:44recorded after their arrests i was involved pretty sure i'm gonna go down for it witness testimony also
40:53placed them at the crime scene and in the end both men pleaded guilty you know you are the biggest
40:59nightmare for individuals that attend public events the judge didn't hold back while sentencing the men
41:06on your smiling you think it's funny no stability no respect for individuals did the culprits that
41:15did this to you have they ever reached out to you have they ever tried to communicate that'd be too easy
41:20one of them got four years and the other guy got eight years in prison they should still be in prison
41:26for life the attackers have been released from prison and they're not far from stowe's mind
41:32i just want to know why they did it why they singled me out has it changed how you feel about sports and
41:38going to a sports stadium or an arena i don't trust anybody being sober now makes me aware of what's going
41:46on had i heard those knuckleheads running up behind us i could have turned and been prepared stowe's family
41:52sued the los angeles dodgers for millions of dollars in a civil lawsuit much needed money for brian's enormous
41:58medical bills the lawsuit accused the dodgers of providing inadequate security the night stowe was
42:04beaten lawyers for the dodgers argued that stowe was intoxicated and aggressive before the assault
42:10and that security wise the team acted reasonably
42:15after seven weeks the jury ruled partially in the family's favor were any of the following negligent
42:21los angeles dodgers llc yes the stowe's were awarded about a third of what they asked for 18 million
42:29dollars which they say was mostly used for medical and legal fees and not nearly enough to cover the
42:35care brian will likely need the rest of his life my job was what i love to do i liked saving lives and
42:43ever since this happening this is gone is there any other kind of job that you'd want to do working at a
42:50carnival not a bad gig i'm not kidding take it on the road i could speak every single day about
42:58getting injured and fan violence and it's something that needs to be talked about
43:06did you ever wish you had not gone to that game
43:08no being part of the game it's in me it's what i deserve to be doing rooting on my team i need to be at
43:15the game it's shocked to me that brian stowe's sports passion still burns so intensely in this storage
43:32room i keep my own sports memories in these dusty bins i have a bunch of old autographed baseballs
43:40i've got my first baseball glove isn't that great i've got a roger staubach autographed football
43:52oh this is a great ticket stub 1989 texas rangers playing the boston red sox it was my dad's birthday
44:01birthday it was an absolutely perfect day i can remember it vividly looking at these old ticket
44:10stubs it reminds me that what they actually symbolize is the powerful memories
44:15stubs and it's what keeps us coming back to the games
44:34you
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