This weekend, a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles jumped out of the stands and ran onto the field. That’s nothing new. Remember Morganna “the Kissing Bandit” Roberts, who used to run onto the field and kiss players? How about those guys at the White Sox game a couple years ago who ran out to beat up the Royals’ first-base coach?
Here’s a new twist: this Eagles fan, Christopher Noteboom, slipped onto the field to spread his dead mother’s ashes during the Eagles-Packers game. Apparently, she was a big Eagles fan herself, and her son wanted to pay her – and her favorite team – one final homage.
So this guy knelt on the thirty yard line, dropped the last handful of his mother’s ashes, made the sign of the cross, and then lay on his stomach awaiting apprehension.
I don’t really have a problem with this. Granted, you don’t want people running all over the field spreading who-knows-what in the turf. But why not reward lifelong devotion to a team with eternal rest on the field of play? It could be a problem with artificial turf, but teams with natural grass could turn it into a profit center. For five hundred bucks, you could have your ashes mixed with the fertilizer that feeds the grass.
One drawback to this scheme is the relentless sale of stadium naming rights. I would think that Mrs. Noteboom would rather be resting in “Veteran’s Stadium” rather than on “Lincoln Financial Field.” Yes, I do recognize that the Vet was demolished last year. I just mean that if I had my ashes scattered on a field, I would prefer that it not share the name of a corporation.
