CLEVELAND, OH. (THECOUNT) — Cleveland Browns fan, Eric Smith, is no longer welcome at FirstEnergy Stadium, but there’s a problem. The team may have fingered the wrong man. The false ID is now raising concerns about how stadium officials falsely identified Smith in the first place.
Late in the fourth quarter of the Browns loss to the Titans on Sunday, Tennessee cornerback Logan Ryan jumped into the stands to celebrate a touchdown. That’s when a bearded Browns fan in a Baker Mayfield jersey threw beer on the player.
The Browns were swift to take action after the NFL Players Association asked they look into the fan. They identified him as Eric Smith and banned him indefinitely from the stadium.
“The first call we got when I was in the office today was from the Browns and we have done work for the Browns . We book bands and DJs for them in the past so I was like OK, they are just calling for some kind of evening coming up and they need some music. And that’s not was the call was for,” Eric Smith said.
Smith, a local DJ for weddings and special events, said he stopped watching the Browns in 2010 and was at a wedding reception at the time of Sunday’s game, reports FOX8.
“He just kind of doubled down on everything like, ‘We know it was you.’ And I got mad, I got really angry and I started raising my voice at him. And he said, ‘You don’t have to get defensive. If you are innocent, then you wouldn’t be so defensive and if you are not a fan, like you say, then this won’t matter to you. ‘And I was like, we’ll it kind of matters.”
DEVELOPING::
Geo quick facts: Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. The city proper has a population of 383,793, making it the 52nd-largest city in the United States and the second-largest city in Ohio – Wikipedia.
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I agree with Eric. It kind of does matter if it really isn't him. For one, if he ever does want to go to a game again, he can't, and two, the guy who REALLY did do it is still able to go and suffered no consequences for his actions, which was the WHOLE PURPOSE of the indefinite ban. So yeah, it kind of does matter.
Agreed.