The old brawl game

In my 68 years on this planet, I've been to three NFL games as a fan. You couldn't pay me to go to another.

And that's not just because you'd HAVE to pay me, because otherwise I couldn't afford to venture into the land of the $16 beer.

It's because I'd like to live a few more years with all my teeth. Or live a few more years, period.

I'm sure Dale Mooney of New Hampshire wanted the same thing, but it won't happen. That's because he died after getting punched twice in the head Sunday at the Dolphins-Patriots game in Gillette Stadium. 

According to witnesses, Mooney, a 53-year-old Patriots fan, went over to the next section to engage a Dolphins fan. A fight ensued, and Mooney got the worst of it. There's a possibility alcohol might have been involved.

I say that because it's the only answer I have to the question "Why would a 53-year-old man go out of his way to get in a fistfight at a football game?"

Anyway, now he's dead for the stupidest reason ever, and you're damn right they should charge the guy who hit him with manslaughter. And while they're at it, charge the degenerates who stood there filming the whole thing instead of trying to break it up.

Meanwhile, in another part of the NFL-verse, a brawl erupted between Jets and Cowboys fans in the concourse at the Jerry Dome. Blood speckled the floor when it was done.

What a charming image for the Shield. Maybe the league should feature it in its next promo video.

The NFL; It's a BLOODY good time!

Look. The issue here is not that someone finally died in one of these fights, because sooner or later it was destined to happen. It's that the league seems helpless to put a stop to it.

 Mooney's death, after all, is only the most extreme example of what has become an every-week occurrence. It's become the old joke about hockey: I went to a drunken brawl the other day and an NFL game broke out. It is, frankly, the natural result of mixing booze, testosterone and the simmering resentment that seems to permeate our entire society these days (and which is deliberately stoked by our wonderful political class, natch).

And you know the worst part?

We can't even say anymore that if the league doesn't get a handle on this, someone's going to die, Because someone just did.