After last week’s Raiders-49ers preseason game turned ugly, with fights in the stands, a beating in a restroom and two shootings in a parking lot, the NFL is promising vigilance with this week’s two Bay Area preseason games.
NFL Director of Security Jeffrey Miller will attend both games and said that an increased police presence and an emphasis on curtailing drunk and disorderly behavior will make the stadiums safe.
“I’d say come on out and enjoy the end of the preseason,” Miller told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’ll be there, and we’ll be there in an enhanced way. We’ll create a good environment for our fans.”
Although it didn’t look like it last week, Miller said there’s been a lot of improvement over the last few years in the way fans in the Bay Area act at games.
“I remember the first game I did, which was 2008, Monday night, Denver at Oakland, that was unbelievable,” Miller said. “I saw officers assaulted right in front of me, people tased, people bleeding, it was terrible, and I’ve been in law enforcement for years. I thought, ‘This is just not acceptable, we have got to get ahold of this.’ Last year when I went and watched that same game, I didn’t see one assault on an officer, didn’t see hardly a need for even an arrest.”
Being happy about not seeing an assault on a police officer is setting the bar pretty low, but Miller insists that the NFL will hold fans to high standards at its stadiums. If you’re planning to go to a game because you’re looking for a fistfight, stay home.