Matt Russell wasn’t just drunk driving, he was driving hammered.
“Are there people who drive home from stadiums drunk? Sure. But how many of them are “Matt Russell drunk”? I would argue very few – as in less than 1%”
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Denver Broncos director of player personnel Matt Russell brought the wrong kind of attention to his team this weekend when he ran is SUV into two vehicles in Summit County, including a police car he rear-ended at an estimated 40 miles per hour. He is lucky that nobody was killed and that he’s not facing vehicular homicide charges. He wasn’t just drunk. He was wasted. Russell had half a bottle of Schnapps in the car with him at the time of his arrest and his BAC was reportedly .21 or higher.
Doug Ottewill of Mile High Sports Magazine penned an excellent, well-researched article today which attempted to establish a relationship between Russell’s indiscretion and boozy fans departing after NFL football games.
Ottewill’s column ran as a Mile High Sports “Daily” and was titled “NFL needs to take responsibility”.
Ottewill’s piece was packed with statistics gathered from various resources including M.A.D.D. (Mothers against drunk drivers) about the frequency with which people drive drunk. Ottewill asserted that fans exiting stadiums regularly do exactly what Matt Russell did. The NFL, he said, does not wish to address the fan problem because it’s too profitable not to. The article closes with “the average beer inside an NFL stadium cost $7.28. Do the math. It’s much simpler, and much more profitable, to scold Matt Russell.”
While I feel that Ottewill’s premise was solid and that his information was good, I felt that it was a stretch to compare Russell’s behavior to NFL fan behavior.
For one thing, in order to become as inebriated as Russell was when he was arrested, fans would have to pound really expensive beers really fast – and do so constantly for four hours before jumping in their cars to head home. Russell wasn’t sloppy on too many $8 Coors Lights. He was hammered on hard booze.
In order to be popped with a blood alcohol content on par with Russell’s a 220 pound adult male would have to consume ten beers in an hour immediately before beginning to drive. That’s virtually impossible at a stadium. Sure, some folks bring flasks in to the games, but not very many. It’s more likely that drunk people filing out of NFL stadiums are in the .08 to .10 range of BAC, which is legally drunk … but not Matt Russell drunk.
Otewill’s article seemingly tried to take the onus off of Matt Russell and pass it along to the NFL and its fans. I find that more than a little strange.
Perhaps he saw the Matt Russell story as a chance to shine a light on the problem of drunk driving after NFL games or perhaps it’s just a slow news cycle in Denver sports. The article was smartly written and well thought out but I felt like it put the focus of Russell’s DUI in the wrong place. What Russell did is his own fault and he will suffer the consequences. It’s not fair to lump NFL fans into a category along with Russell.
Are there people who drive home from stadiums drunk? Sure. But how many of them are “Matt Russell drunk”? I would argue very few – as in less than 1%. Those that are that hammered aren’t hammered because the NFL is making a buck on beer sales – they snuck booze in.
Ottewill’s article seems harmless enough and might even be applauded by some – but it’s an example of the way in which we tend to stray away from personal responsibility and toward a world where nobody is allowed to tail gate anymore and beer sales cease at half time. A common advertising slogan claims “buzzed driving is drunk driving”. I’m guessing Matt Russell would disagree.
