Playoff brawl (Video)

[just another ref]

While the fan is clearly the main culprit from what I see the player is not squeaky clean either. She accelerates the situation by sticking her hand in the woman's face. The hand get's slapped away and then it's on. I had two questions. First, as you say, based on the reaction of the player on the last possession, she was struck in the face. Did this occur before or after she stepped out of bounds? Second, do we penalize a player for becoming involved in an altercation with a fan when the fan is clearly the initial aggressor? The player didn't even have to retreat. If she had just waited a couple of seconds and kept her hands to herself, the official was already stepping in and calling for help, presumably from police or game management.

Naturally, some will blame the officials. One of the articles said something about the fans blaming the officials for "allowing the game to get out of hand."

And a couple of the youtube commenters agreed that the official should not have allowed the fan to approach the player.

wow