An eight-year-old Jets fan was tackled by a drunken Browns supporter in a parking lot following Sunday’s game.
The boy’s mother, who would only identify herself as Danielle, said her son attended the game with his father, who is from New York. She said her husband and son were not harassed inside Browns Stadium during the Jets’ 26-20 overtime victory, but the scene turned ugly once they left, Cleveland’s WEWS-TV reported Wednesday.
“As he was walking, holding my son’s hand, a guy from behind tackled him. A drunken Browns fan tackled him and pulled him out of his dad’s hand. He was on the ground crying,” Danielle said.
She said her son’s ankle was scraped and bruised, but her husband opted not to call police, choosing instead to leave as soon as possible.
“He just wanted to get him out of there, out of that environment,” Danielle said, adding that Browns fans also threw food at them and called him a “bad word.”
Browns vice president of media relations Neal Gulkis said team officials were looking into the situation, which he called unfortunate.
“One thing Browns President Mike Holmgren said when he got here was home-field advantage and a fan-friendly environment is very important,” Gulkis said.
Initially, Danielle said she was not worried about her son attending the game, because “Clevelanders are such great people. I knew that they would never hurt an eight-year-old kid, never.”
The Muni Lots outside the stadium are operated by the city. Cleveland parks and recreation director Michael Cox told WEWS behavior by drunken fans is one reason that the city stopped opening the lots at 4:00am on game days.
Either way, Danielle said her son will not be going back to another Browns game.
“My husband asked him, ‘Did you have a good time?’ He said ‘Yes.” He said ‘Would you want to go back sometime?’ And he said ‘No, I don’t like Browns Stadium.’ Who could blame him?”
In response to the incident, Matt Higgins, the executive vice president of business operations for the Jets, offered to fly the victim and his family to a Jets game and have them as guests in a suite with an all-access pass to the game, according to WEWS.
Danielle and her family stated they appreciated the Jets’ offer but declined, saying they were “done with this story.”