73 people dead, 1,000 people injured—150 of them critically. These are not the statistics from a suicide bombing in Iraq or Afghanistan; these are the estimated casualties from yesterday’s massive riot in Egypt after a soccer game.
Throughout the match in the northeastern city of Port Said, the home team fans of Al-Masry threw bottles and rocks at the Al-Ahly fans and players, a wildly popular team from Cairo.
Once the clock reached full time and Al-Masry pulled off the 3-1 upset win, all hell broke loose. Fans from both sides stormed the field. They bashed each other with rocks and chairs, stabbed each other with knives, and trampled over the bodies of those who were not lucky enough to stay on their feet.
When all was said and done, the worst soccer riot in the world since 1996 had unfolded in a matter of minutes.
The story is sickening, sad and illuminates a growing problem of sports taking a front row seat to morality and human dignity.
Of course many factors played a role in the Egyptian riot—the violently tumultuous state of the country combined with meager police protection for citizens and a government run by a brutal military force no doubt helped lead to this catastrophe.
But the fact remains that the galvanizing force behind this tragedy was a soccer game.
If you think the Western world is immune to these sort of events arising out of sports zealotry, think again.
In the last year, we’ve seen a Giants fan nearly beaten to death by Dodger fans after a game, a two-person shooting in the parking lot after a 49ers-Raiders game, destructive riots in Vancouver after game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and an explosive child sex scandal cover up at Penn State.
None of these events alone may be on the same scale as what happened on that Egyptian soccer field yesterday, but all stem from the inability of certain individuals to distinguish between diversion and reality.
Passion and fervor for the sports organizations that represent our local communities can be a powerful and unifying force. Sports teams are the symbols of our cities and a healthy source of escapism for many individuals who just want a few hours to cheer with a collective group of strangers for a single cause.
But at the end of the day, sports is just that—a symbol. Strip away the media coverage, thousands of fans and enormous arenas and you’re left with people playing a game.
Wars will not be won or lost and people will not live or die based on what occurs on a field, court or rink. Yet the recent events both in Egypt and the Western world demonstrate that some truly believe this to be the case.
We have a choice to make; we can either let sports become as vitriolic and venomous as the political, religious and cultural differences in this country, or we can step back and recognize that although sports may bring us great joy and great pain, a whole world of enormous and challenging problems still exists once the final buzzer sounds.
The Egyptian soccer riot will soon fade from the lens of the mainstream media and be cosigned to oblivion by the rest of the globe, but if you are a sports fan or connected to sports in anyway, never forget what happened in Port Said on Feb. 1, 2012—a day where 73 people gave their lives for a game.
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