Philadelphia wasn’t the only city in Pennsylvania plagued by unruly sports fans over the weekend.
Another fan-related issue went viral involving attendees at the Penguins-Lightning game at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Sunday after one fan stole a puck from a young supporter.
The incident occurred during the second period in Section 105.
The viral video showed a later part of an incident where an older Penguins fan got into a verbal altercation and was booted from the arena after swiping a puck from a young fan and then getting into the face of the boy’s mother.
The situation nearly came to blows as the mother appeared cock back her arm as if to throw a punch before stopping herself.
Another fan then started to intervene to shoo the older fan away.
Penguins president of business Kevin Acklin explained to KDKA TV in Pittsburgh that “a puck went up into the netting and a young boy about 3 or 4 rows back went and shook the glass.”
When the puck fell to the ground, the older fan, who was wearing a replica Lowell MacDonald jersey, scooped up the puck before the young fan could.
As Acklin explained in an interview with KDKA Radio the older fan grabbed the puck “basically out of the boy’s hands.”
That did not leave the fans around him in a happy mood and they began to boo him, explained Acklin, who also added that “by his own right gave the puck to his granddaughter who was about a teenage granddaughter.”
The viral video starts when the girlfriend or wife of an unnamed Penguins player, who watched what had transpired, walked over to the young fan and gave him a puck.
The people watching cheered, and the young fan and his mother each hugged the Penguins WAG in appreciation, but that’s where the situation escalated.
“And as the wife or girlfriend was leaving, the grandfather got up and started getting into it with the fans around them,” Acklin said.
Video then showed the man walking into the aisle to start getting into the face of another fan and then going up to the boy’s mom to argue with her.
As the two jawed at each other, the boos only got louder and the mother briefly motioned like she was going to strike.
“At that point, it sort of got out of hand, and there were some hand gestures, and the older gentleman was escorted out of the building,” Acklin said. “It’s unfortunate, a lot of passion.”
The Penguins’ president of business ops did “caution” people that there is “always two sides to the story.”
“I credit our staff, we reached out to both families who both felt that they were in the right,” he said.
The altercation came on the same day another high-profile incident happened in Philadelphia.
A video of an Eagles fan repeatedly calling a female Packers supporter a “dumb c–t” during the Eagles-Packers wild-card game went viral and led to the man involved being identified as Ryan Caldwell.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
