An Unpleasant Saint

As to be expected, yesterday was loaded with plenty of action around the NFL. However, the story that seems to have gotten the most attention is something that happened in the stands in New Orleans. After Cincinnati Tight End, Jermaine Grenshan, scored a touchdown, he noticed two women (Christa Barrett and her sister, Cara Meadows) in the stands wearing Bengal jerseys. So, he tossed them the football. However, while the ball was in mid-air, a disgruntled Saint's fan, Tony Williams, stepped in front of Barrett and intercepted the toss. Barrett wound up taking an elbow from Williams in the process, but no yellow flags were thrown.

Barrett, understandably shocked at the man's actions,  pleaded with him to give up the ball. But he continued to act like a total dickhead and sat there with his arms tightly wrapped around his stolen property.

Now, I know there will be some football fans that will say, "Hey, they're Bengal's fans in the Saint's 'house'. Screw 'em!"

Really?

I'm not buying it. Apparently, a lot of other Saint's fans weren't either. Many New Orleans' fans in that section of the Superdome began chanting "Give them the ball!" But the guy turned a deaf ear and clenched his hands around the ball even tighter.

It's one thing to cheer and defend your team, but it's another thing to be a total asshole. Why would this guy even want the ball? After all, it was a Bengal who scored the touchdown with it. I wouldn't have even had that big of an issue with him if he would have tossed it back onto the field. Hey, they do it all the time in baseball when an opposing player hits a homerun. No doubt, stealing the woman's footballs and tossing the football back onto field would not be the nicest thing to do. But at least it's understandable it to some degree. People sometimes get caught up in the emotion of the game and do some not-so-nice things. But for this curmudgeon to sit there with his arms wrapped around the ball while the women begged was a pathetic sight.

From what I've read, Williams has had this particular seat near the end zone since the Superdome opened. He also said that he has never gotten a game ball before, so therefore there was no way he was giving it up. He's kidding, right? How old is this guy? He sounds like a spoiled three-year old. The bottom line is that the Cincinnati player clearly wanted the two Bengal fans to have his touchdown ball. After the game, the Cincy Tight End summed up his feelings by saying, "He (Williams) should be ashamed of himself and you can put that on the record."

I would have thought that, at some point, Williams' conscience would have gotten the better of him and he would have just handed the ball over. But that never happened. Instead, a representative from the New Orleans Saints eventually intervened and presented the woman with another game ball. Definitely a classy move by the Saint's organization. Yeah, it's pretty bad when your own team acknowledges that you're an asshole in front of 50,000 fans. I sure hope that football was worth it.

By the way, I find it bit ironic that this guy is a "Saint". According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a saint is defined as a person who is very good, kind or patient. Williams displayed none of the above.

Hopefully, karma will bite him in the ass for being such a classless jerk......

kw