Bills Fan Fired After Stadium Fall

He's barred from games after reckless slide
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2013 2:19 AM CST

Unemployment has been added to injury for a Buffalo Bills fan who put himself and another fan in the hospital with a reckless stunt at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday. In an incident that became a viral video, a fan identified as Rob Hopkins slid down a safety railing on the upper deck, only to lose his balance and fall 30 feet into the crowd. Hopkins won't be allowed back into the stadium, the team says, and the ad agency he worked for yesterday announced he is no longer an employee, reports the New York Daily News. Both injured men have now been released from the hospital.

"By his actions, this individual has shown that he is a danger to himself and others, and we fully support barring him from future events," says an official with Erie County, which owns the stadium. Criminal charges are also a possibility. But while Hopkins is injured, jobless, and a fan of the team with the longest playoff drought in the NFL, he can still count himself lucky, the Buffalo News finds. Out of at least 39 people to have fallen from stadiums over the last decade, 14 have died, including a 49ers fan who fell to his death in September. (More Buffalo Bills stories.)

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