The family of Giants fan Bryan Stow calls Pittsburgh colunmnist John Steigerwald's comments "pathetic" and "inexcusable."
"Just disbelief, just outraged really," says John Stow, Bryan's cousin. "We just thought what a joker, what a clown. He's basically looking for attention."
Harsh words from Bryan's cousin after reading Steigerwald's article that ran in a local Pennsylvania newspaper this week.
Steigerwald wrote, "Someone should ask Bryan why he thought it was a good idea to wear Giants gear to a Dodgers home opener when there was a history of out-of-control drunkenness and arrests."
http://www.kionrightnow.com/story/14443446/bryan-stows-family-fires-back-at-pittsburg-columnistJohn Steigerwald — the guy who blamed Bryan Stow for his own beating in a recent column — took to his blog today to say that he did not blame Bryan Stow for his own beating. The blog has been flooded with traffic so it’s been down much of the afternoon, but here’s a Google Cache version of it:
I don’t apologize for the column but I do apologize to the Stow family if this nonsense has reached them and in any way added to their pain. I don’t, for one second, blame Brian Stow for the beating he took. I do blame the ever increasing out of control, out of perspective behavior by fans, too many of whom are no longer satisfied with going to their stadiums and cheering for their teams. And I sure as hell don’t think –as some hysterical posters have claimed –that Brian “had it coming.”
Steigerwald also says “Nowhere did I imply that Stow deserved what happened to him. I thought that the difference between DESERVING a consequence and unwittingly contributing to one was implicit.”
I and tons of other people linked his first column and said our piece, so now we link his explanation and let him say his. I’ll leave it to you to decide if he sufficiently acquits himself. In the meantime, I’d suggest that Steigerwald look up the definition of the word “imply.”
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/04/13/john-steigerwald-explains-himself/From the podunk paper he contracts to:
Column sparks reader firestormIf we ever had any doubts about the reach of social networking, they were put to rest late Tuesday afternoon when phone calls and emails began pouring into the offices of the Observer-Reporter, all of them blasting a column by John Steigerwald that was published in Sunday's sports section.
Just about everyone who has lived in Western Pennsylvania during the past three decades knows who Steigerwald is. He's the caustic, sarcastic commentator familiar to TV viewers, radio audiences and newspaper readers. His column has appeared weekly in the O-R and other area newspapers for the past eight or 10 years.
His column Sunday was about the horrific beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He wrote that wearing the jersey of a visiting team - particularly in Los Angeles - is inviting trouble, and went on to criticize adult fans for wearing team regalia at all, which is something he's complained about before in his columns and on air.
Titled, "Know when you've outgrown the uniform," it lacked sensitivity, for sure, but there was no reaction to it locally on Monday.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/editorial/04-14-2011-EditorialSomeone I know who worked with this jerk told me he's always been a RWingnut & lazy to boot. Didn't surprise them he even got Stow's name wrong in the column which the podunk paper corrected.