Philadelphia wasn't the only Pennsylvania city plagued by unruly sports fans over the weekend.
At Sunday's Penguins-Lightning game at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, a fan-related incident spread to the crowd after a fan stole the puck from a young supporter.
The incident occurred during the second period of Section 105.
The video showed the second half of the incident in which an older Penguins fan got into an altercation, snatched the puck from a younger fan, and then hit the boy's mother in the face before being ejected from the arena.
The situation almost turned into a blow as the mother appeared to swing her arm back as if to throw a punch before stopping herself.
Another fan then began to intervene to shoo the older fan away.
Penguins Operations Manager Kevin Acklin Explained to KDKA TV in Pittsburgh “When the puck went into the net, a kid about three or four rows back went and shook the glass.”
When the puck hit the ground, an older fan wearing a replica Lowell McDonald jersey scooped it up before the younger fans.
As Acklin explained: KDKA radio interview An older fan grabbed the puck “basically out of the boy's hands.”
That didn't satisfy the fans around him and they started booing, Acklin explained, adding, “In his own right, he gave the puck to his teenage granddaughter.”
The viral video begins with the unnamed Penguins player's girlfriend or wife, who was watching what happened, walking up to a young fan and giving him the puck.
Those watching cheered and the young fan and his mother hugged the Penguins WAG in gratitude, but things escalated from there.
“Then when his wife or girlfriend left, the old man got up and started making noise with the fans around him,” Acklin said.
The man was then seen on video walking into the aisle, getting close to another fan's face, then approaching the boy's mother and arguing with her.
The boos grew louder as the two locked jaws, and the mother momentarily gestured as if she was going to punch her.
“At that point, things got out of hand and there were some hand gestures and the older gentleman was taken out of the building,” Acklin said. “It's unfortunate, but there was a lot of passion.”
The Penguins chief executive “reminds” people that “there are always two sides to things.”
“Credit to our staff. We reached out to both families and they both felt it was the right thing to do,” he said.
The altercation occurred on the same day as another high-profile incident in Philadelphia.
A video of an Eagles fan repeatedly calling a female Packers supporter “stupid” during the Eagles-Packers wild-card game has gone viral, and the man involved has been identified as Ryan Caldwell.
