With the NFL season now underway, franchises are coming to grips with the hard truth that election-year fans aren’t planning to leave their politics at the gates.
The Arizona Cardinals learned that the hard way after drawing national condemnation for threatening to eject a fan for simply wearing a MAGA hat to their game. Susan Rosener had entered State Farm Stadium on Sunday for a matchup against the Los Angeles Rams and was about to take her seat when security officers intervened, the Daily Caller reported. The female Cardinals fan told a local news outlet that she was informed “political hats or shirts” were not allowed inside the stadium, and she would be ejected if she refused to take off her hat.
“She’s like, ‘No political hats or shirts.’ And I said, ‘I haven’t heard that at all.’ And I said, ‘That doesn’t make sense to me.’ And she goes, ‘I said, Take your hat off,’” Rosener said. Despite her confusion, Rosener complied with the request, though she later expressed regret about not questioning the directive further. “In retrospect, I wish I would have stood my ground,” she told the outlet.
After being contacted by Fox News, the Cardinals issued a statement apologizing to Rosener and chalking the who fiasco up to a “misunderstanding.” A spokesperson for the team wrote, “In an isolated incident at Sunday’s game, a stadium security member misunderstood a policy on prohibited items. Like most venues, ‘signage, posters, flags, or displays that are….political in nature’ are not permitted. However, that did not apply in this instance. Moving forward we will work to provide clarity to all stadium personnel in these situations. We have also reached out to the individual involved to communicate that their experience was not consistent with our policies and practices and to apologize for that.”
Alyssa Goncales, a conservative activist with the Arizona chapter of Turning Point USA, first posted what she claims are screenshots of text messages by other attendees that day who were strongly encouraged to remove their political paraphernalia or risk ejection. Goncales claims a friend was denied entry into the stadium unless “the security guard watched her throw her hat in the trash,” adding, “There is nothing on their website stating that she can’t wear something like this in the stadium… Unfortunately this is the sad truth of the America we live in.”
Despite Goncalves’s claim that multiple fans were harassed by third-party security officers, the Cardinals spokesperson said Rosener’s experience was an isolated incident. “We have only heard from one individual. But if there were a couple others that had a similar interaction that should not have happened either. Again, it’s not our practice and in the 18+ seasons we’ve been in this stadium, it apparently has never occurred previously. Moving forward, though, we will work with all of the third party groups that interact with our fans to make sure this abundantly clear,” the team said.
In recent years, the intertwining of political statements and sporting events has become more pronounced and led to scuffles. After President Trump’s infamous mugshot was taken, several Yankees fans unfurled a massive banner during one of the team’s opening games, trolling liberals incessantly online. After the Kansas City Chiefs invited a singer to perform the “Black National Anthem” at last year’s games, boos poured down from upset fans.
