A serious case of navel gazing here in Oaktown after a few kids busted up some downtown shops following the Raider loss in the not-so-super-bowl. The word is that the town of Oak may not recover from the "black eye" this pack of mosquitoes has caused the city struggling with it's image like a chocoholic struggles with flabby thighs.

Well, it just goes to show that the folks who give us the local news have no research departments... Not only is this type of thing fairly common, if anything, the "Oakland Riot" was downright wussy.

Let's step back and go over some of the better Sports Riots in recent history...
Denver - long known by us here in Oakland as a pack of worthless hooligans has sports fans with second careers as "riot engineers". Let's go back to 1996 when the streets took several thousand drunk and rabid fans to it's bosom for a little extracurricular bonfire activity. How about in 1998 when the "worst sports riot in Denver's history" saw 10,000 losers torching, looting and destroying their own town... this after their team won the Super Bowl. They held a follow up soiree in 1999 when the Broncos repeated as Super Bowl Champions. It doesn't end there - 5000 loons took to the streets after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001. Now that is some serious lack of civic pride.

Sorry Denver much like many other things... you lose here as well... Without a doubt Detroit is our hands down Riot champion... Detroit 1984 Michigan & Trumbull... Tigers win the World Series and what is left of Detroit goes up in flames... Canadians are still coughing up the ashen remains of old Buicks. Not a real problem here as it will be more than a few years before the Tigers get the trophy. Detroit reputation was so irretrievably damaged already, this riot was only notable for the fact that there was actually something left to burn...

How about the Riot that might have actually added to a towns sports fan credibility? Los Angeles 2000... outside the Staples center... Lakers fans riot after the big win... reputation of LA as the land of the "5th inning fan" fades... just a little... Who woulda thunk it? That many fans still tuned into the game. For the three of you who read this and don't know what that means - LA fans have the rep. of showing up in the 3rd inning and leaving in the 5th.

It goes on and on... I stay away from collegiate sporting events and european soccer (or Football to the increasingly anachronistic British) because they break out with a riot with such frequency that it would be impossible to keep up.

How about a little respect for the progress we have been making in our great rioting heritage? For years, the word Riot played bitch to the word Race - It was the Race Riots in seemingly every city and town that were kicking in our collective teeth since before the 1940's and going into the 70's. Isn't a sports riot just a slightly out of control Kegger compared to a Race Riot? Which of the two represents the tearing of our social fabric based on the lack of respect for our fellow man? Well, yeah, they both are but it is a matter of degrees and I'll take 10,000 drunks in Denver whooping it up over Mr. Ed and the rest of the Orange clad neo-warriors over 1968 Detroit every time.