About this item
In 2011, the San Francisco 49ers hosted the Oakland Raiders in a preseason matchup that would become a seminal moment for fan violence. During the game, seventy fans were ejected from the stadium, one person was beaten unconscious in the men's room, and two men were shot in the parking lot after the game. This is hardly an isolated incident. At any given game, fans get kicked out and arrested for acting out. In the spring of 2014 alone, soccer headlines screamed of a fan killed in Brazil, a supporter who punched a police horse in England, and three fans shot in Italy. But why do fans resort to such violence? What drives them to abandon societal norms and act out in unimaginable ways? Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan explores the roots of extreme fanaticism, from organized thuggery to digital hate speech.
About the Author
Justine Gubar is a four-time Emmy award-winning investigative journalist. For almost two decades, she's worked as a television producer for ESPN, where she has covered major sporting events, including NBA, MLB and NFL playoffs, the Final Four, and the Olympics. She has produced stories, shows, and news coverage for a variety of programs, including "Outside the Lines," "SportsCenter," and "College GameDay." During her time at ESPN, she has covered a wide range of off-the-field issues including performance enhancing drug use, domestic violence, and homophobia in sports. Justine's work has appeared on ESPN television networks around the world, in print on ESPN.com, and on ESPN Radio. She has worked on stories in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America, investigating topics that range from labor violations in Cambodian apparel factories to Lance Armstrong's drug use in the Tour de France.
In 2011, she was honored with a Women in Cable Television (WICT) Signature Accolade award for Herstory: Ten Times Over, a documentary about basketball camps for girls in Nigeria. This project also received a NAMIC (National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications) Vision award. In that same year, she also won a Hoover Media Fellowship from Stanford's Hoover Institute.
Justine was awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship and spent 2006-07 in residence at Stanford University. She has spoken to various organizations, including the National Association of High School Athletic Associations, The Association of Women in Sports Media, and The Commonwealth Club. She is a proud member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.
Before ESPN, Justine worked for Court TV and ABC News. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Justine is a native New Yorker now living in San Francisco. She realizes there is a whole country in between and has traveled to all 50 states, many while reporting various stories for ESPN.
