For those Chicago Bears fans who don’t recall the name Russell Beckman, here’s a quick recap. He is a Green Bay Packers fan who buys season ticket for both franchises (how the hell does he have that kind of money?). One thing he liked to take advantage of was a special offer that allowed people to appear down on Soldier Field with the players during pregame. Unfortunately that didn’t last long for him as he the team would not allow him to do so in wearing Packers gear.
Incensed at this, Beckman tried to find a loophole through that issue. After exhausting every possible alternative he started to get desperate. So he turned to the legal system, filing a lawsuit against the Bears for not allowing what he considers to be freedom of expression. In fact according to Deadspin he even went out of his way to prove it was a selective thing by sneaking into the Bears’ opening game against Atlanta wearing a Falcons jersey
“This may not be some moral crusade, but Beckman is really into it. He has gone to considerable lengths to prove his point. To wit: Beckman actually bought a special ticket package to the Bears’ home opener this season. It allowed him to be on the field before the game. He called the company that sold him the ticket package, VividSeats, to make sure it was okay to wear a Falcons jersey. It was.
So Beckman borrowed a Julio Jones Falcons jersey from one of his students—“This was pretty cool,” he says—wore it to the stadium and stood on Soldier Field clad in another team’s gear. Beckman said no one said a word to him about wearing the opposing team’s jersey. In fact, he says there were more than 30 fans wearing Falcons jerseys on the field.”
Russell Beckman is struggling to understand what the big deal is
It may sound silly to a lot of people that Beckham is wasting that much time and money over this issue. He however thinks it’s an important moment for him to show his children and grandchildren the value of fighting for things they believe in.
“I love watching NFL games with my children,” Beckman says. “I’m looking forward to doing it with my grandchildren. That’s one of the big reasons why I hold season tickets to two NFL teams. And [the full experience] has been taken away from me. So it just ticks me off!
“And I tried to work with them and tried everything I could so I wouldn’t have to file a lawsuit. I just don’t get it. I think the Bears fans are the greatest people in the world but I don’t understand why the Bears organization is doing this.”
The fact that Beckman is surprised by this is itself surprising. The Bears organization is one of the strictest, yet most inconsistent NFL franchises going. Their media policy is suffocating and they seem backwards at times with their approach to fan experience. At the same time it’s not hard to see why they singled out Beckman. He’s a Packers fan, and the Packers are the enemy.
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Of course they let him in wearing a Falcons jersey. They don’t play the Falcons twice a year. He should’ve tried his little experiment with Lions or Vikings jerseys and seen what happened. This franchise has suffered for years at the hands of Green Bay and have grown tired of making the Soldier Field experience comfortable for their fans.
That may seem juvenile, but so is filing a lawsuit over what is essentially a game.
