They like to glamorise European soccer hooligans, but nobody in US sports seems to realise that they've got a homegrown problem of their own, argues Steven Wells

When it comes to hooliganism, the US media really is the pot calling the kettle black. Riots at US sports events occur far more frequently than they do in the UK. And yet, in American popular culture, the "hooligan" is almost without exception portrayed as a soccer fan (and nearly always as English).

"The European hooligan thing is really overdone by the US media - it's much worse here," admits Philly sports fan Al Petrillo. "Eagles games are out of control. It's like a rite of passage, you get shit-faced drunk and out of control. The FU's start flying and then the fists start flying. There was this guy, an old guy in Redskins attire, maybe in his sixties. They roughed him up, broke his leg and sent him back to Washington."

"I have never seen a more classless, vulgar, belligerent group of jack-asses in my entire life," wrote Dolphins fan Brian Fien after 20,000 "screaming green morons" visited Miami. The reputation of the Eagles fans is so bad that, when they failed to boo a little blind boy with cerebral palsy when he faltered while singing the national anthem during a brutal snowstorm, they were congratulated by ESPN.com.

"We thrive on the fact that everybody can't stand us," Eagles fan Shaun Young told Jere Longman. "We're a bunch of filthy, dirty, nasty, drinking bums. In a sense we take pride in that. We don't want you here. We want you to be afraid to come."

Meantime, I think it's time for the pot to shut the up.