Caution: If You Show Up To A Box Lacrosse Game To Talk Shit To The Players, There's A Chance You End Up Taking A Stick To The Face
So the other night at the Halifax Thunderbirds vs Colorado Mammoth game in the NLL, a couple of fans decided it would be a zany little night to head over to Ball Arena and talk some shit to Tyson Bell.
Tyson Bell has been in the NLL for a while now, and he's one of the...angrier players in the league. He's not exactly the type of player who, I don't know, is able to control and compartmentalize his emotions. Most of the time he's leading emotion seems to be "pissed the fuck off". So as far as targets to go after, I'd say these fans picked the wrong guy.
Some players who have a longer fuse might be able to brush it off. Some players will do everything in their power to just ignore it. Tyson Bell doesn't have any fuse. He only has a detonate button. And these fans apparently did enough to press that button. So with zero hesitation, Tyson Bell immediately goes over to them and starts to unload. Takes off the glove, throws a quick punch to let them know that it's on. Then when the fans get out of his reach, the good news for him is that he has a 4' long lacrosse stick he can still be in range with.
Bam. Right in the goddamn face.
Now listen--in no way am I excusing this behavior. Certified psychopath shit from Tyson Bell here. That is quite literally the definition of assault. The man is out of his goddamn mind, and this isn't going to help him beat the "scumbag" allegations.
With that being said….you just need to be smarter as a fan. You need to understand that this is the National Lacrosse League. It's still the wild west out there. It's not like these guys have much to lose. It's not like going to an NBA game and being able to say whatever you want because those guys are making hundreds of millions of dollars. Plus, not nearly enough people give a shit about professional box lacrosse for this to be "major" news. The league could have easily swept this under the rug if someone wasn't there recording it on their phone. Not anymore.
Moral of the story here is that swinging your stick at a fan is absolutely moronic and ludicrous behavior. But fans also need to be smarter in this situation, and understand that you don't have the protection of these players possibly losing millions of dollars for going after you. Until professional lacrosse players start having salaries higher than your average insurance broker, maybe avoid talking shit to them while they're 3 feet away.