All posts tagged Cleveland Browns

That's an expensive tie.

I’m a Cleveland Browns fan. I live in Pittsburgh. And believe me, I understand what Chicago resident John Stone is feeling.

Sort of.

Stone is the latest victim of what we’re going to call Sports Discrimination, which is what happens when an out-of-town sports fan pokes the locals by wearing gear of his favorite team and then is shocked — SHOCKED — when he catches some abuse in return.

Stone was working as a salesman at a Chicago-area auto dealership, and one day after Green Bay beat the Bears, Stone, a Packers fan, wore his favorite Packers tie to work. The trouble is that he not only works with a business full of pissed-off Bears fans, but the guy who signs his paychecks is also a sponsor for Bears radio broadcasts. That guy doesn’t want to irritate any potential customers, so he tells Stone to take off the tie. Stone refuses, apparently several times.

And Stone was fired.

This seems to happen a lot during the NFL playoffs. It happened a couple weeks ago in Tacoma, Wash., when Grendon Bailie , a seventh-grade student at Truman Middle School, had the audacity to wear a Steelers jersey to school on a day when the school’s normally strict dress code had been relaxed to allow Seahawks gear. Bailie was sent home for the day.

And then there was Joshua Vannoy, a student at Beaver Falls (Pa.) High School who wore a Denver Broncos jersey to school during a Steelers playoff run in 2006. Vannoy’s teacher in the school’s honors ethnic relations class made Vannoy take a test while sitting on the floor in the middle of the classroom; the teacher, John Kelly, also had the other students in the class throw wads of paper at Vannoy while he took the test.

Outrageous, right?

Maybe. Think about the context in each situation.

Stone is an at-will employee. When the boss tells you to do something, it’s probably best that you do it.

Vannoy was abused in a ethnic relations class where the teacher frequently singled out students so they could have some real-life experience with the subject matter; the teacher said he saw Vannoy’s John Elway jersey as a an opportunity for another teaching moment. To my knowledge, no one else in the class sued the teacher and the district because they felt “dehumanized.”

I think the administrators at Bailie’s school could have cut him some slack, but if they make one exception to a strict dress code — Seahawks gear only — then they can at least say they’ve been consistent in the enforcement of those rules.

And here’s the other thing: I’ll cut the middle-school kid some slack, but I am not buying the notion that Stone or Vannoy were surprised when their co-workers or classmates reacted negatively. When I drive around Pittsburgh with the Browns flag flapping from the passenger-side window, I know I’m going to get some middle fingers. When I leave home wearing my Bernie Kosar jersey, I expect some comments when I’m walking around town.

I’m not surprised by it; the reactions are why I do it. Stone’s a grown-up, Vannoy an honors student; each had to know they were in for a little abuse when they showed up at work and/or school, and in both cases, they reacted badly.

Photo source.