Boorish Soccer Fans at Coliseum

Re “Don’t Equate Rudeness With Disloyalty,” Commentary, Feb. 20: Gregory Rodriguez’s article, which maintains that the boorish and often violent behavior by Mexican fans at the Feb. 15 U.S.-Mexico soccer match was simply homeland loyalty, missed the mark entirely.

Cheering wildly, waving flags and banners and faithfully supporting one’s favorite team are appropriate ways to act at an athletic event. Booing during a national anthem, assaulting the opposing team’s rooters and pelting members of the opposing team are not only inappropriate but include criminal activity. Let’s not confuse these miscreants with true sports fans.

CHARLES H. SMITH

Long Beach

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Rodriguez felt the need to justify his article by writing: “But of course, the uproar over the poor sportsmanship of the pro-Mexican crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum last Sunday has nothing to do with our collective concern with fan behavior. If that were the case, there would have been greater public soul-searching years back when rowdy Raider fans regularly beat up on supporters of opposing teams.”

Spoken like someone who has never had beer thrown at him. It’s funny that Rodriguez should bring up the Raiders. Given poor behavior among a minority of two very different sets of fans at the same venue, isn’t it just barely possible that the real issue is inadequate security at the Coliseum? A Rose Bowl crowd in 1996 at a match between the U.S. and Mexico was also vastly pro-Mexican. There was no outcry then because the fans were civil and the security adequate. Had the Coliseum followed the example of the Rose Bowl, the Feb. 15 game would have been simply a sporting event. And it’s Alexi Lalas, not Alexis.

DAN LONEY

Los Angeles