"Some of the events I did in the past put me on the map, but the Super Bowl - that put me on the moon. "I'm worldwide now," says Roberts, who has streaked everything from Wimbledon and the British Open to the Commonwealth Games and the UEFA Cup Final. Looking back, Roberts says it was worth it. He performed an Irish jig in front of Carolina kicker John Kasay, and was dodging security officials when New England Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham flattened him with an elbow. He used a Velcro officiating outfit to sneak onto the field, and ripped off the uniform just before kickoff to start the third quarter. An online casino paid for his game ticket, airfare and hotel in exchange for a slab of advertising space on his front and backside. Last year, he says, everything came together. He planned to attempt a streak at Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, but his tickets fell through. Roberts was already known throughout Europe and the UK for his streaks, which now number more than 380. So we took photographs outside the courthouse. "The judge had to excuse herself, and she took me in there and everyone was just laughing. Roberts said that after the verdict was read, the jurors returned to a side room where they broke out in laughter. Even the judge told them they made the right decision - jail wasn't the right thing." Lucky enough, they saw the funny side of this. "My fate was in the hands of all these women," Roberts says. While the league pushed for jail time, Roberts said, the jury fined him $1,000. The charge carried a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. In June, an all-female Houston jury found Roberts guilty of misdemeanor trespassing for his Super Bowl antics. Just before he went incommunicado, we reached Roberts with a phone call to his home in Liverpool, and asked for an update on his last 12 months. "Everybody loved it - except for the NFL." The great people of America took it as they should - with laughter. ![]() Everyone I met - in L.A., Houston, New York - I never got any negative vibes from anybody. "I was just overwhelmed by the way the American people took to me. "It was one of the most fantastic experiences of me whole life," Roberts says. And he'd be lying if he told you he didn't crave more. Sure, Janet Jackson's Nipple-gate stole some of his thunder, but Roberts parlayed his Super Bowl streak into his own 15 minutes of American fame. After all, he formally introduced himself to American pop culture at last year's Super Bowl, dropping his drawers before the second-half kickoff and parading around midfield in nothing but a G-String. But that's where the smart man puts his money. We've been following his antics for a couple years now: "Somewhere where people can't get in touch," he says. But Mark Roberts won't say where he's going. An incident in July 2022, when a security guard accidentally hit Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello while chasing down a fan who jumped on the stage in Canada.His bags are packed. ![]() The organization later filed a police report accusing Wagner and fellow Rams linebacker Takk McKinley, who helped take down the fan, of “ blatant assault.” An October 2022 incident in which Bobby Wagner of the Los Angeles Rams tackled a fan in Santa Clara who was protesting for Direct Action Everywhere. ![]() It was later revealed the man did so on a $1,000 TikTok bet. A fan running onto the field during a January 2022 NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, whose wide receiver, Stefon Diggs, knocked the man down. He later claimed to have done so after placing a $50,000 wager that the game would have a streaker. Boca Raton man Yuri Andrade, who interrupted the Super Bowl in 2021 by running onto the field in a neon pink leotard. Records of people doing so in the nude - an act called streaking - date back to 1799.īut there’s been a disturbing rise in a few less time-tested trends: people paying fans online to run onto fields and stages, fans setting up conditions so they’ll make money off the misdeed, and players and entertainers taking it upon themselves to stop them. Florida has no ban for incentivizing such behavior.ĭisrupting events and harassing players to gain brief notoriety are hardly new phenomena. Under current state law, people who interfere with live sports or entertainment events are subject to charges of simple trespassing and fines of $500 or less. “I think it’s going to be problematic and create litigation for this bill moving forward,” he said. He suggested that forced forfeiture of money is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which protects citizens from excessive punishment. Gottlieb, a lawyer in private life, said he supported the bill in concept but worried the provision allowing the state to take away money a person gains from interrupting a live event could attract lawsuits.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |