Behave yourself

Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

The National Football League has been concerned about the conduct of its players for some time, which isn’t surprising considering some of the atrocious off-field, often criminal, behavior exhibited in recent years.

But now the NFL is turning its attention to the fans. Concerned about fights in the stands and other crass behavior, the league let fans know this week that bad behavior will be punished. Under the policy, teams can ban obnoxious fans and strip season ticket holders of their right to future tickets.

Included as inappropriate behavior under the policy are foul or abusive language, obscene gestures and drunkenness that leads to bad conduct.

Poor behavior in the stands is more common than the NFL would like, and occasionally play is affected. Last year, for example, referees stopped a New England Patriots game until fans quit peppering the field with snowballs.

The NFL, however, has placed an emphasis on how fans’ behavior affects others in the stands. Eric Grubman, NFL executive vice president, put it this way to USA Today:

“Here’s the standard: Enjoy yourself, come root for your team — but don’t infringe on the enjoyment of another fan. If you want to come root for another team, that’s OK. But we don’t want somebody pouring a beer over your head.”

What the NFL understands is that unruly fans are bad for business. It costs a small fortune to go to a major league game, and nothing spoils a day at the stadium more quickly than sitting near a drunken and obnoxious fan.

This may be something of a trend. The National Basketball Association made a similar move in 2005 to try to curb unruly behavior.

It is good that the NFL wants to improve the behavior at its games to improve the climate for other fans, but it is a shame it has to take such a step. Good behavior should be a matter of common decency.