It's great when fans passionately follow sports teams, but sometimes they just go too far.
Avid Lobo football fans who stayed up late Saturday night for KRQE-TV, Channel 13's tape-delayed presentation of the UNM game in Lubbock against Texas Tech saw another example of people taking the term fanatic a little too literally.
About 48,000 wild Red Raiders fans decked themselves in red and black and cheered for their team. The only problem was that they took every chance they could to shower the field with corn tortillas, which is known as a racial slur against Hispanic teams. The Lubbock field crew had to constantly rush to clear the tortillas from the field.
One Daily Lobo photographer covering the game was doing his job when he was smacked in the face with a tortilla.
This type of behavior is inexcusable, and the fans at Texas Tech should be admonished and reprimanded.
Unfortunately, this sort of activity can't be brushed off and considered typical bad behavior for other schools to worry about.
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During UNM's home opener against the University of Texas at El Paso two weeks ago, fans indulged in similarly crude behavior.
University Stadium was teeming with excitement. Lobo fans were thrilled to take in the unveiling of a newly renovated stadium and the promise associated with the opening of a new season.
The Lobo fans in the northeast corner of the stadium sat next to a large group of UTEP fans who were wearing sombreros. The Lobo fans teased the UTEP fans all night, which is to be expected.
However, they went too far in the closing seconds of the game when one UNM fan told the UTEP group that he guessed it would be a long swim back across the river that night, prompting a cascade of wetback slurs from other UNM fans.
No amount of apologies will correct the way dozens of UTEP fans had to angrily duck their heads as they left University Stadium.
As an El Paso native and UNM student, I expected so much more from my peers.
We can't do much to correct the behavior encountered when we leave the state, but surely Lobo fans could stand to grow up and pay more attention to what's going on the field rather than participating in senseless acts of racism.
Iliana Lim¢n,
Editor in chief
