The NFL can't wait for March Madness to begin.
In the story that just won't go away, there are now two separate groups of fans suing the league for supposed mistreatment during the Superbowl. This mistreatment? Being forced to watch the Superbowl from standing room only seats or in various stadium sports bars (with free food and drink) because their $800 seats were not completed in time for the game.
Now it's understandable that people might be upset because they weren't able to sit in the seats they paid for. But it's not like those people were turned away from the game. On the contrary, the NFL went out of it's way to fix the experience for these fans. They were even allowed on the field immediately after the game ended. Who wouldn't want to be part of that scene? I would have traded my regular seats for a chance to still watch the game with free snacks and drinks and then mingle with players and celebs on the field - what sports fan wouldn't love that chance?
So, sometimes things happen. Not even bad things, like earthquakes or murder at the Superbowl, just inconvenient things that made a once-in-a-lifetime experience a bit more memorable. None of these fans came away from the game traumatized by what happened to them. All of these fans came away with a story to tell for the rest of their lives.
Yet the real problems began when the NFL decided to "make it right" for these fans by offering them $2400 for each $800 seat they purchased. Apparently three times face value isn't enough of a payoff for some people. Especially people who still got to see the game. There were other fans who missed almost the entire first half because they were waiting in line and they only got face value refunds for their seats. Why aren't they protesting their terrible circumstance?
Perhaps because those fans didn't leave their brains in North Texas and have at least a vague understanding that sometimes life just happens.
The seat-less sufferers however, weren't buying the 'insulting' offer the NFL made. They weren't buying the next offer either; $2400 for each seat plus tickets to next year's Superbowl plus airfare and hotel accommodations. Some of them claim the offer is unfair because they can't be guaranteed their team will be in the game next year. Well? What the hell are you waiting for NFL? Get it done. Make sure these poor people, who have already seen their team in the Superbowl, get another chance.
Oh, wait. The NFL did that, offering tickets to any future Superbowl plus at least $5000 cash money (more, if you can prove expenses) for these poor, huddled masses.
The best part of this whole story is how these fans have identified themselves. Displaced persons? Really? Who exactly are we talking about here: Haitian boat people? Katrina refugees? The Jewish Diaspora? If Superbowl fans without a seat are displaced persons then I'm suing my local library every time there isn't a chair in the Adult Reading Room.
Where does something like this stop? This isn't even the fault of the lawyers for once. This is just pure, naked, All-American greed on the part of these fans. They do not come across as sympathetic victims; they come across as spoiled children. They are behaving as if they are somehow owed reparations, as if they were Soviet Russia demanding justice from Germany at the end of World War Two. They are behaving as if they have been terribly wronged and the NFL needs to be dragged before an international war crimes tribunal to make their pain 'mean something.'
Who are these people? Is this what we are, as a society?
You went to the Superbowl. You had a good time leading up to the game (and if you didn't, that's not the NFL's fault). You had a perhaps slightly uncomfortable, ultimately memorable time at the game. And you either broke even or made a profit on the experience. Oh, right, you also got free tickets, flights and rooms to the next Superbowl of your choice. Please, please don't clog up the courts with your ridiculous lawsuits. Go home, sit down, shut up and enjoy your hush-money; March Madness is just around the corner.
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