Wow.. Just read the article, that's so unfortunate. Makes me kind of embarrassed to be a fan sometimes. Not just Seahawks, but football in general. This happens at EVERY stadium in the country, if you wear the opposing team's jersey, you get harassed, that's just the way it's been since I can remember. Most of the people who do the harassing are actually decent folks, just had a bit too much to drink and let their emotions take control.
I know its just a game and anyone should have the right to wear whatever they want to a stadium. Its a free country. However, that won't stop people from screaming profanity at you. Pretty much everyone should know this by now. If you wear an opposing team's jersey into a stadium, any NFL stadium, you're going to be in for a very long day/evening. Unfortunate, but it is what it is. They're not going to stop selling alcohol at football games and those nutty, profanity screaming J-offs at the game happen to bring in a lot of revenue for the Seattle Seahawks.
Anyway. Although the behavior was totally unacceptable, in that article. It hails in comparison to what I underwent at a 49ers game. I wasn't crazy enough to wear a Seahawks jersey at Candlestick, but I couldn't help but wear my new Seahawks hat. Just with a hat, I was screamed at all game long. Had random Niners fans scream inches from my face every time the Seahawks were scored on or turned the ball over.
I am guilty as sin when it comes to bad behavior at games though.. Towards the end of that same game, someone behind me snatched my hat off my head and started rubbing his a$$ with it, screaming, I ended up grabbing him by the collar and pulling him down an entire row, where he landed flat on his back. Right as I was about start punching him, I had about three other Niners fans jump on my back. I was with a friend (I would never go to Candlestick alone and cheer for the Hawks, lol!) who tried to get the guys off me, but he was then jumped too. Lucky for us, security was there within thirty seconds and we weren't beat up too bad.
Long story short, it took about four big security guards and a SF police officer to get these guys off of us and escort us out of the stadium. On the way out, we had beer poured all over us from Niners fans on both sides of the isle we were running up. It was a nightmare. Never got my Seahawks hat back. I can't even imagine what they did to my hat after I left.. In the end, no one was even sent to jail, the cop just told us to get on the bus and go back to our hotel.
I learned a very valuable lesson, if you are a Hawks fan and want to go to a 49ers game when the Seahawks are in town, call up Candlestick and ask to sit in a family friendly section. We just grabbed whatever tickets we could get ahold of at the time, since we were in town for business. We had no other choice. It ended up being one of the rowdiest parts of Candlestick.
Never again...
Also: I have heard some pretty harrowing stories from fans of opposing teams that went to a game in the Bay Area against the Oakland Raiders. My friend has a colleague that's a Broncos fan, he was stabbed when he went to a game in Oakland. Not in the stadium, but after the game in the street. A group of guys in black Raiders jerseys came up from behind him, roughed him up and one of the guys ended up stabbing him in the side right before they ran away.
The Bay Area seems to be a pretty violent place for sports fans in general. Not too long ago, a random guy (who was a laid back husband and father) was brutally assaulted by a group of Dodgers fans. The sad thing is this was not in L.A. but SF, when the Dodgers were playing the Giants in San Francisco. If I remember correctly the guy was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized for quite a while. The first few days he was hanging on to life by a thread.