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By Jim Caltagirone
For the Mirror
The NFL has a public relations problem.
The initial response has been typical.
Following a series of high-profile brawls and assorted physical altercations among fans attending games during week two of the season, the television networks began packaging reports on fan violence at NFL stadiums.
In textbook fashion, the image-conscious executives in league headquarters recycled the canned press release that emphasizes fan safety as a top priority.
The hope is that all the fuss will soon fade away and attention can return to television ratings and the weekend gate.
Fights in the stands, on the concourses and at the parking lots are not a new phenomenon.
What's different in this era of pro football is that witnesses are instantaneously uploading video of the misbehavior, inappropriate conduct and pure violence to social media accounts for the entire world to see.
As Candace Buckner wrote in The Washington Post, "Fans keep fighting, for reasons vast and unknown. And even more mystifying, we can't stop watching."
Professional sporting events are designed to attract family members of all ages, but the venues have turned into microcosms of urban life in this country, where foul language, taunting, unwarranted aggression and physical attacks are an unwelcome part of the experience.
Jason Williams, a sportswriter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, wrote, "People ask me regularly about going to NFL games. I always tell them, and have for years: An NFL stadium is no place for a kid under high school age. I'd never take my sons, 10 and 6, to an NFL game."
The same day that a New England Patriots fan died from "a medical issue" after a physical altercation with Dolphins fans in Gillette Stadium, fans of the Cowboys and Jets brawled on a concourse in AT&T Stadium, leaving behind a trail of blood.
Well-intentioned part-timers wearing Event Staff shirts are not going to prevent the type of violence that causes serious injuries or worse at major sporting and entertainment events.
Would the visible presence of armed security make a difference?
Proposed solutions have included designating separate seating sections for fans of competing teams, but ticket exchange platforms make that option wholly unworkable. Besides, fans converge at all other areas of the stadium before, during and after the games.
Might there be a way to curb inappropriate conduct before it escalates to violence? Perhaps no-tolerance policies could be adopted that result in removal from the stadium for a wider range of infractions.
The people who threaten, intimidate and assault other fans have disqualified themselves from participation in the NFL experience.
In this land of the free and home of the brave, fans should not be deterred from wearing their favorite team's apparel to a game, home or away, in fear that it might incite an act of aggression.
If a simple solution to the problem of fan violence existed, it would have been implemented decades ago.
It's going to take all the creativity, determination and leadership that the NFL can muster to get all forms of fan misconduct under control at stadiums around the league.
Because if a lot more people start believing that it's not safe to take a kid to an NFL game, then the league will not only have a fan violence problem on its hands but a crisis of consumer confidence as well.
Jim Caltagirone writes a monthly column for the Mirror. He also comments on college football's national scene or Gameday.