The Super Bowl is only a couple of weeks away.
As the teams continue to practice, restaurants and hotels in the Phoenix area prepare for a huge influx of tourists, stadium officials make last minute adjustments, and reporters work on background stories, the police departments in the various teams’ home cities make preparations for the aftermath of a home team victory.
The most likely Super Bowl matchup, according to the experts, seems to be the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots.
After the Seahawks ended a 30-year championship drought by winning the Super Bowl, Seattle fans pelted police with beer bottles, set bonfires in the streets, damaged cars and caused $25,000 in damages to Pioneer Park.
New England fans have even more practice at Super Bowl celebrations. Past Patriot victories have been marked by broken shop windows, arson, overturned cars and other property destruction and even arrests for vehicular homicide.
The need for police to be prepared for celebrations that turn to riots and for property owners to make sure their insurance coverage is up to par is not limited to Super Bowl cities. Fan riots have followed championships in basketball, baseball, and soccer.
Psychologists are not surprised with fan riots following victories and cite basic human instincts as part of the cause. Brad Bushman, an Ohio State professor of communication and psychology, says that the riots are "not uncommon after many major sporting events."
He goes on to say that, "Social identity theory shows that people like to take pride in the groups they belong to. But often people think to make themselves feel better they have to stomp down those who belong to other groups."
New York psychologist and psychotherapist Stanley Teitelbaum says that intense competitions can cause people to turn to destructive behavior as a release.
"It’s a group contagion effect. When they’re part of a group, then they’re more prone and more likely to join in and let that aggressive side of themselves. Internally, people are psychologically and emotionally building up a lot of intensity and tension. It becomes an opportunity or an excuse to let all this out."
The phenomenon of the sports riot has received a great deal of study. Glyn Roberts and Darren Treasure explore the behavior in their book, "Advances in Motivation in Sport and Exercise," as does John H. Kerr in "Rethinking Aggression and Violence in Sport."
Kerr goes as far as to break the fan riots into four types: anger, thrill, play and power. He discusses in fairly complex physiological terms the mental processes and conditions that prompt each type of riot.
Super Bowl XLIX has the hallmarks of being one of the best of the past few years. Hopefully, the fan celebrations after the game won’t dominate the postgame headlines.
