Detroit Lions’ offensive lineman Dominic Raiola is tired of taking abuse from fans. And damn it, he’s not going to stand for it anymore.
Raiola, one of the team’s captains, responded verbally to the heckling — and also with an obscene hand gesture — late in Sunday’s 20-16 loss to the Vikings at Ford Field.
Asked Monday if he regretted “giving the fans the business,” Raiola, while not directly acknowledging the gesture, didn’t mince any words.
“Nope. Not one bit,” said Raiola, who returned to the lineup Sunday after missing four games because of a broken right thumb. “Because I wish everybody out there came into the film room and watched the film, watched the effort put out there. And, yeah, everybody makes mistakes, everybody messes up — and I’m talking for everybody right now — and, yeah, they’re paying customers. But we’re trying to put some wins on the board and give them something to cheer about. And I don’t know what to say, other than what I said yesterday.”
“I don’t take one thing back,” said Raiola, an eighth-year pro whose streak of 104 starts ended after he was injured Nov. 2 at Chicago. “I’ll say the same thing to a fan that I see on the street. I wish I could give my address out to some fans — I’d do that. But you can’t. Nobody plays with fists. Everybody wants to play with metal. So I can’t.
“I’m just so frustrated. I’m tired of being a doormat. For people to just talk to us how they want to talk to us, I’m just not gonna put up with that anymore.”
I don’t blame Raiola for getting frustrated and firing back at fans that take personal shots at him. But when you’re making millions of dollars for playing a kid’s game, getting heckled by fans comes with the job. You still have to be a professional and try to ignore it, especially when you’re on a team that can’t produce one lousy win for a fan base that has already suffered enough throughout the years.
Honestly, if I were in Raiola’s shoes, I’d probably be giving the fans the ol’ double-fingered salute on the way out of the stadium, too. But I’d be in the wrong, just like Raiola is. Buying a ticket to the game doesn’t give you the right to act like an idiot, but it also doesn’t give Raiola the right to take his frustrations out on paying, unsatisfied customers, either.
