A pitch invasion (also known as field storming, rushing the field or rushing the court) occurs when a person or a crowd of people spectating a sporting event run onto the competition area, usually to celebrate or protest an incident, or sometimes as a publicity stunt. Consequences for participants can result in criminal charges, fines or prison time, and sanctions against the club involved, especially if they cause a disruption in play, although they may sometimes be more welcomed if a large portion of the spectators invades the pitch simultaneously outside of playing time.
This is especially common in college and high school football when a team pulls off a major upset, defeats a major rival, ends a long losing streak or notches a history-making win. With the widespread advent of artificial turf, some schools have become more lenient about students invading the pitch. In the last few years, goalposts are also taken down within moments of the end of the game as a cautionary measure to prevent fans from climbing atop them to cause damage to the standard holding them up, damage to television camera equipment on the posts, and spectator injury. In the National Football League, rushing the field usually results in a lifetime revocation of season tickets from the holder of them, even if given or sold to another person, along with a lifetime trespassing notice banning the rusher from the team and/or stadium property, or in cases of multiple rushes, other league stadiums.
Section 10.5 of the Southeastern Conference By-Laws has a progressive fine policy adopted in 2004 for major sports: $5,000 for the first offence, $25,000 for the second offence, and $50,000 for third and subsequent offences within a three-year period of the last pitch invasion. In May 2015, the fines increased to $50,000; $100,000; and $250,000 for the first, second, and third plus subsequent offences, respectively, with a period for past violations being increased from three years to five. In 2023, the fines were respectively further increased to $100,000; $250,000; and $500,000 and changed so the fine would be paid to the opposing institution for conference games (nonconference games continued to have the fine paid to the SEC's scholarship fund), with each team also being given a clean slate.
Generally for an upset situation however, the fine (which in college sports is usually a donation to a conference's scholarship fund rather than a punitive payment, as is the course for the SEC) is taken as a "badge of honor" by the school and its fanbase that knows the cost of storming well in advance, and fans and the school's booster club proudly donate the funds to a school's athletic department needed to pay the fine, along with the secondary cost for the replacement of damaged or removed goalposts.
The Kentucky Wildcats were hit with "the triple" for three football pitch invasions within eleven months, involving upset wins against league powers and an in-state rival:
Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Missouri had been fined $25,000 for second offence violations, but most SEC schools were fined $5,000. Missouri's fine is notable in that their second violation occurred after only three years as a member of the SEC: both came when supporters flooded Faurot Field after the team clinched a trip to the SEC Championship Game, in 2013 and 2014.
LSU was fined $100,000 for a second offense following its victory 13 October 2018 vs. Georgia. Its first offense was 25 October 2014 following a victory over Ole Miss, drawing just a $5,000 fine. LSU fans twice tore down the goalposts in 2000, following victories over Tennessee and Alabama, but did not invade the Tiger Stadium pitch again until 2014. The goalposts remained intact during the 2014 and 2018 incidents.
Auburn became the first SEC institution to be fined the maximum of $250,000, following its football victory over Alabama on 25 November 2017. This came on top of violations following Auburn victories over Alabama in football in 2013 and Kentucky in men's basketball in 2016.[7] Auburn was fined another $250,000 after fans stormed the field following its Iron Bowl victory on 30 November 2019.
Arkansas was fined $250,000 when its fans stormed the field after a victory over Texas on 11 September 2021. Two weeks later, Kentucky was hit with a $250,000 fine following a victory over Florida, the Wildcats' first home win over the Gators since 1986.
In 2022, LSU was hit with two $250,000 fines following successive home wins vs. Ole Miss and Alabama. The goalposts remained standing following both incidents.
Missouri became the first institution to be fined $100,000 for a first offense following a last-second upset win over #15 Kansas State after the game ended on an SEC record 61-yard successful field goal. Ole Miss became the second two weeks later when it defeated LSU. The Rebels were fined an additional $75,000 for fans throwing debris onto the field at various times during the game.
Other conferences have similar by-laws; in some conferences, the pitch invasion rule is reset to zero after five years without a pitch invasion, and the fine is doubled in the event that a player or official is injured as a result of the pitch invasion.
However, more recently, some conferences have begun cracking down on pitch invasions in all sports.
There has long been a tradition in American football – primarily in college football – under which fans celebrating a major victory will tear down the goal posts on the field after the game.[8] No one knows for certain when or how the tradition started.[9] The Boston Public Library has in its collection a photograph of fans tearing down a goal post in 1940.[10]
Tearing down the goal posts can be dangerous, however, as people can be injured or killed by a falling goal post. Persons who sit or hang on the goal posts while they are being pulled down can be injured if they fall off or if they land hard on the ground when the goal posts collapse. Camera equipment from a game broadcaster attached to the goalposts results in another injury possibility. These dangers can create legal implications for the schools, the localities, and the venues where the games occur.[11]
In Massachusetts, there is a state statute that specifically prohibits the unauthorized tearing down of goal posts on a football field. Chapter 266, Section 104A of the Massachusetts General Laws provides: "Whoever willfully and without right destroys, injures or removes a goal post on a football field shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars."[12] The Massachusetts state legislature enacted the statute in 1960 in response to a tragedy that occurred the previous year.[13] On 26 November 1959 (Thanksgiving Day that year), a 14-year-old girl in Foxborough, Jane Puffer, was hit on the head by a falling goal post. She had been part of a crowd that was on the field after the conclusion of a high school football game while a group of fans was tearing down a goal post. The steel goal post suddenly toppled to the ground, and Puffer was hit as she was apparently trying to push another girl out of its way. She died of her injuries the next day.[14] [15] [16] The state legislature enacted the statute the following year, and the law has remained unchanged ever since.[17]
In spite of the law, on 22 December 1985, fans of the New England Patriots tore down a goal post in Sullivan Stadium (also in Foxborough) to celebrate the team's victory there in the regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, which clinched a playoff berth (and eventual Super Bowl appearance) for the Patriots. Some fans carried the goal post outside of the stadium, where they caused it to come into contact with an overhead high-voltage power line. A man nearby, Jon Pallazola, was seriously injured. There was evidence that he was injured when he tried to protect himself from being hit by the falling goal post immediately after it became electrified. Pallazola subsequently sued a private security company that had been under contract to provide security at the stadium. He received a large jury verdict against the company, and then settled his claim against the company for $4.5 million. He also sued the Town of Foxborough but, in 1994, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that his claim against the town was barred by a state statute that gave municipalities immunity from claims that they failed to provide police protection or prevent crimes.[18]
On 19 November 1983, an 18-year-old Harvard University student was critically injured when she was hit on the back of her head by a goal post that Harvard fans tore down to celebrate their team's victory over archrival Yale University at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.[19] [20] The student, Margaret Cimino, subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against Yale, the City of New Haven, the City of West Haven, and a security company. She settled her claims against the City of West Haven and the security company. In 1986, a federal judge ruled that Cimino had sufficient evidence to take her claims against Yale and the City of New Haven to trial.[21] The parties then reached a settlement before the trial occurred.[22]
On 21 November 1998, a first-year student at Oregon State University was seriously injured when she was hit on the head by a falling goal post that fans tore down after the football team's 44-41 double overtime victory over the University of Oregon.[23] She suffered a fractured skull and bleeding in her brain, but she eventually recovered from her injuries.[24]
In November 2000, fans of the University of Texas at El Paso tore down a goal post after a victory. One fan claimed that he was injured when fans pulled the goal posts down while he was hanging on them. He sued the university and the University System of Texas. A Texas intermediate appellate court ruled in 2005 that the lawsuit was barred by governmental immunity.[25]
On 20 October 2001, a 21-year-old Ball State University student was rendered paraplegic when a goal post that fellow fans tore down to celebrate a victory landed on his back.[26] The university had encouraged the fans to tear down the goal post, flashing a message on the scoreboard which said, "The goal post looks lonely." The student, Andrew Bourne, settled his subsequent claim against the university for $300,000, the maximum amount that he could recover from the school under Indiana state law. He also filed a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of the goal post, contending that the goal post was "defective and unreasonably dangerous". In 2006, a federal appeals court ruled that the manufacturer was not liable because the danger posed by the goal post was "obvious".[27]
Now, in order to prevent injuries, there are collapsible goal posts that stadium staff can take down within seconds after the conclusion of a game to prevent fans from tearing them down.[28] [29] There are also goal posts that are constructed in such a manner that they cannot be taken down by fans.[30]
On October 4, 2014, Ole Miss fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after knocking off #1 Alabama 23–17.
On 2 November 2015, students at the University of Kansas illegally broke into Memorial Stadium and tore down the goalpost at the south end of the field following the Kansas City Royals' World Series clinching victory vs. the New York Mets at Citi Field.[31] The goalposts at the stadium were also torn down after victories by the Jayhawks, vs. Nebraska in 2005 and 2007, West Virginia in 2013, Iowa State in 2014, Texas in 2016, Oklahoma State in 2022, Oklahoma in 2023, and in 1994 by fans of archrival Kansas State.
On October 15, 2022, Tennessee fans stormed the field and tore down the goalposts after knocking off #3 Alabama 52–49 on a game-winning field goal and ending a 15-game losing streak to the Crimson Tide. One was later tossed into the Tennessee River.[32] [33]