A viral video of New Orleans Saints fan Tony Williams stealing a football from a female Bengals' supporter Sunday caused an uproar on social media, but he's not apologizing.
Bengals tight end Jermaine Grisham scored a touchdown and then tossed the ball to the only Bengals fan sitting nearby, but a man — later identified as Williams —
snatched it right out of her hands, CBS Sports reported.
The woman’s widespread arms and look of disbelief were transmitted across the nation, causing such an uproar that the Saints organization did end up sending her home with a souvenir ball.
Williams defended his actions to the New Orleans Advocate, saying that if the fan, Christa Barrett, had been pregnant or with a child, he wouldn’t have snatched it away.
"The Saints fans that were around me, and know me . . . they were all saying, 'keep the ball,'" the diehard Saints fan, who has been a season ticket holder since 1968, told the Advocate. "But the other people, where the lady was, was saying give her the ball. I caught it fair."
Williams did watch the video and was glad that he didn’t push Barrett, as some people online accused him of doing. He said the football was for his grandson, but also told the newspaper that his grandson cried because fans jeered at Williams for getting the ball.
But still, Williams may not have anticipated the anger he would generate when he landed that football. CBS Sports called him "the worst fan of Week 11," while online he was called a "lowlife" and one New Orleans fan even tweeted that he "shamed every Saints fan."
Barrett and her sister, Cara Meadows, apparently didn’t have hard any feelings about the football battle that took place off the field.
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