Why I won't be watching the Bears play in Charlotte this weekend

When the schedule released in April, I circled both the 5th and 12th of October. I knew that we were playing the NFC-South this year, and living in Charleston meant that I'm only a few hours away from both Charlotte and Atlanta. So, getting in the car trekking to either stadium on a Sunday wasn't all that out-of-the-question.

As much as I want to be in the crowd when Brandon Marshall goes for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns this weekend, I won't be attending.

For as many inviting reasons as there are to go and experience watching the Bears play live, there are as many equally and un-inviting reasons.

A few weeks ago, we saw an all-out brawl erupt between Cardinals and Eagles fans, which resulted in a security guard getting choked and a bloodied stadium. This is not okay.

Last week, we witnessed a drunken Chiefs fan "air-hump" a Patriot's fan's face while on-lookers chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A". This is not okay.

A few years ago, I went to a Redskins game (Cedric Benson's first game), and an old lady randomly started cursing out my friend because he was wearing an Urlacher jersey. Not very threatening, but also, not okay.

Then, of course there's 49ers and Raiders fans shooting each other.

People are dumb.

I want to take my little girl to a game and let her experience it first hand. I want her to be able to stand up and sing the Bears' fight song (which she has known by heart since age three) after she watches Matt Forte take a screen pass to the house.

However, I will not subject her to the meat-headed mentality and brutishness of opposing fans that seems to happen when surrounded by 60,000 of equally-minded sports fans combined with and lots of beer.  I can't guarantee the safety of my family and this is not okay.

From my experiences, there seems to be a correlation between the level of dumb and the level of seating at a game. So, I could probably drop $300 or more per ticket (plus travel expenses) to sit in one of the lower sections and avoid a good bit of this.

Thanks for the offer ticket brokers, but I just can't justify doing this.

Now, I'm sure not every fan experiences this when visiting an opposing stadium. And I'm not saying that we should make every little thing kid-friendly.  But I just can't risk putting my little girl in that situation.

So, this Sunday-- and next-- and every Sunday until there's either a better security system in place, or 'more-compassionate-less-drunk-crazy' people at games, we'll just sit back in the comfort of our home and gleefully serenade our dogs and neighbors with "Bear Down, Chicago Bears."