Last night FOX 6 in Milwaukee reported on one of the station’s official Twitter accounts that it had video of a fan at the Packers-Bears game last night lobbing a racial slur at Packers player Nick Collins as Collins was leaving the field after the game.
The FOX 6 Sports Twitter feed reported at the time:
Today, the same Twitter feed included this entry:
FOX 6 did air the video live this morning on multiple occasions, and CheeseheadTV.com Packers reporter Brian Carriveau reported what he saw on Twitter:
Of the incident, FOX 6 reported on its site today:
Green Bay Packers safety Nick Collins apoligizes (sic) after getting into a post-game confrontation with a fan after the game against the Chicago Bears Monday night.
Collins tells FOX6’s Tim Van Vooren the incident happened on his way down the tunnel to the locker room at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Collins says that’s when a fan called him the “N” word. Collins stopped, yelled at the fan and threw his mouthpiece at him.
NFL rebroadcast rules prohibit FOX6Now.com from posting video of the incident on our website or any other.
Per Stephanie Stradley of AOL Fanhouse, NFL rebroadcast rules state:
NFL credentials impose a 90-second limit on the use of online and other new media non-game audio and video content obtained as a result of credentialed access. Such content may not be “archived” (i.e., made available for on-demand public access) for more than 24 hours on the Internet, may not incorporate integrated advertising, and must be accompanied by links back to NFL.com and to the team’s web site.
Bill Voth of WSOC-TV in Charlotte also noted to me today that the NFL only considers non-game video to be reporter standups and off-field interviews. So Collins walking in the tunnel is considered in-game video.
Despite the league-imposed online video embargo, the station has since posted screenshots of what it described as “witnesses” to the incident, while asking visitors to its Facebook page to identify the folks in the images.
As for the NFL disciplining Collins, if he did throw something at a fan or fans, regardless of what it was, he has to be sanctioned in some way. Regardless of what was said to him. (As much as it pains me to say that if an n-bomb was directed at him.)
2:34 pm on September 28th, 2010
If I had a dime for every time an opposing player threw his mouthpiece at a racist Bears fan, I’d be rich.
11:41 pm on September 28th, 2010
Nick Collins is a thug that needs to be suspended
11:50 am on September 29th, 2010
That fan should have his season ticket revoked.
Classless, completely classless
11:25 am on October 2nd, 2010
Although I certainly agree with many fans in their opinions that Collins was completely out of line and had lost control of his emotions I am under the opinion that any type of suspension could eventually lead to some type of fan war. If suspending opponents players could be the results of an fan instigated action such as racial name calling, spitting, or an escalated action it would therefore give fans undeserved control over the outcome of nfl games. Your fans got a player suspended now lets see how many of an opponents team our fans can get suspended. I think this is a potential can of worms that has danger written all over it