Columnist Ron Kantowski: Sept. 11 already forgotten

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 9:43 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

You knew it wouldn't, couldn't last for very long.

Remember the compassion, understanding and warmth that permeated football stadiums in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, when, at least for a couple weekends anyway, we proved that we do get it? That great games we created from scratch, such as baseball and football and basketball, were valuable as diversions, but not the life-and-death matters that so many of us make them out to be?

Well, those days, like the bombings themselves, are history.

Based on the shameful incidents in Cleveland and New Orleans last weekend, it would appear to the rest of the sporting world that the only thing God blessed America with is a bunch of bottle-throwing morons.

After the attacks, we were feeling so violated and vulnerable that our stadiums were all but fitted with shoulder pads and flak jackets. The heightened security, we were told, was supposed to discourage guerrilla hijackers from crashing DC-10s into luxury boxes.

If it weren't so inappropriate back then, I would have laughed out loud. As last week's bottle rocket invitationals so aptly illustrated, we have more to fear from Joe Six Pack -- make that Joe 12-Pack or Joe Pony Keg -- than Osama bin Laden, at least from a personal injury standpoint.

It certainly was a bad week for sportsmanship. Throw in Nuggets coach Dan Issel and that fan discussing their cultural differences, and Bob Knight asking the arena superintendent to step outside, and it's easy to understand why Hallmark stock took another big hit over the weekend.

That's why as far as I'm concerned, you can take all those tears that were shed in the end zone seats in the aftermath of Sept. 11, add them to some hops and barley and sell them for 5 bucks a pop. At least that way they will have served a purpose. Better yet, slap an American flag decal on the bottle, call it a commemorative tankard, and charge $10. With a nickle from every beer sold, of course, going to the Sept. 11 relief fund.

While I realize that not every football fan who expressed emotion or grief following the attacks was mugging for the camera (or angling for a job on George O'Leary's staff), this is America. Where when an individual screws up, the group usually suffers the consequences.

When the pimply-faced kid in fourth-period history class gets caught passing notes to the skinny girl in braces, the entire class stays after school.

Besides, it wasn't as if the incidents in Cleveland and New Orleans were the work of a lone gunman. Did you see the number of bottles littering the field? I'd say Oswald had a little help from the Dawg Pound.

It's too bad those two games weren't played in Oregon, where they pay a 10-cent deposit on empties. You could have parked the grocery cart and called it a night.

All jokes aside, at the very least the bottle-throwing episodes were acts of hooliganism. At the very worst, it makes you wonder what's next.

History will show that we've assassinated four presidents, but not a single referee, quarterback or tight end -- even if he drops a game-winning pass in the end zone.

We can only hope that's one score that will never change.