The fans made him do it

A family, after having suffered a tragedy involving their child, has every right to want retribution. That family also has the right to ask for recompense from the opposing guilty party.\nLeave it to one family to make those rights look superficial and greedy.\nRonald and Fazila Verni of New Jersey were on their way home from a pumpkin-picking trip with their then 2-year-old daughter when a drunk driver struck their car. The Vernis' daughter wound up paralyzed from the neck down, and the driver was recently sentenced to five years in jail. Here is where the lawsuit would come into the picture. Since the family has, and is going to continue to suffer the effects of that collision, a little compensation is in order.\nInstead of just suing the driver, the family is also suing the NFL, the New York Giants, as well as the owners of the stadium where the Giants play. Vernis' lawyer sued all three because they encouraged the environment that led the driver to drink 14 beers during the course of the game. Never mind the fact that the NFL, which doesn't directly contract foodservice vendors, has a rule that alcohol can't be sold after the third quarter. Never mind that the Giants go a step further and ban alcohol sales at the beginning of the third quarter. Never mind that the driver sidestepped the two-at-a-time rule by tipping the vendor $10 to buy six beers at once.\nThe family's lawyer also said the tailgating environment fosters alcohol use as the only way to have fun during a game.\nSeeing who the family is suing, we think they left out a few people -- the other 10,000 tailgaters in the parking lot and the other 40,000 fans in the stadium. Surely that driver wasn't tailgating and drinking by himself, right? No one tailgates alone, sober or not. And with that many people around, the peer pressure must have been murder. That's it -- he had to drink to fit in with the crowd. He had to drink like a fish so he wouldn't be a loser at the giant tailgate in the stadium parking lot, where drinking insane amounts of alcohol is the way of the true fan. He was drinking for the team, right?\nEven if the NFL, the Giants and the stadium owners had the resources and manpower to visually inspect every fan in the area for drunkenness, the harsh fact is that being drunk isn't illegal -- doing certain things while drunk is. It was the driver's choice to drink heavily, and it was his choice alone to get in his truck and attempt to drive home. If we really want to stretch the blame, blame whomever he went to the game with for not taking his keys from him. Suing the NFL and the Giants for one fan's idiotic personal choice is akin to suing a chewing gum company because our shoes got stuck to the floor. It just doesn't make sense.