Rule #1: No Yelling When Your Team is on Offense
I love team spirit. I love getting dressed up in my gameday dress, watching Sunday NFL Countdown or College Gameday and jamming to the football mix on my iPod. I will cheer as loud as anyone else in the stadium and have cried when my team lost a big game. However, one of my biggest pet peeves is when football fans cheer when their team is on offense. Your team's QB relays information to his team seconds before a play begins. You may think you are helping your team by yelling, but really you are making it very difficult for your team to call a play. Wait until a play has started to cheer for your team. Yell as loud as you can whenever your team is on defense but stay quiet as a mouse when your team is trying to call a play.
Rule #2: Don't Stand Up in the Middle of a Play
The excitement that football brings often leads its fans to jump for joy in the middle of a play. Unfortunately this causes those behind you to miss the play. To avoid being rude to your fellow football fanatics, choose to stand before the play starts but do NOT jump up in the middle of a play. If the person in front of you jump to their feet, sneak a peak around them rather than stand straight up.
Rule #3: Don't Get Up and Leave Your Seat in the Middle of a Play
After every football play is a break before the next play starts. If you are going to leave your seat and squeak by your neighboring fans to get to the aisle, make sure you are doing it BETWEEN plays rather than during a play. You wouldn't want someone to miss something spectacular because you are standing in front of them.
Rule #4: Face Out When You Squeeze Through the Aisle
So now you know not to leave your seat in the middle of the play. But how to exit the row gracefully and politely, is worthy of another rule. If you are squeezing through the aisle (and always saying "excuse me" along the way) make sure you face out (away from the person you are squeezing by). There is nothing worse than someone squeezing by you and standing face-to-face as they are doing it. Look outward as you leave your seat.
Rule #5: In All Kinds Of Weather...Stick Together for Your Team
As a fan of a 1-9 NFL team, I can tell you this rule is sometimes hard to follow. But it is important to share in the bad times for your team so you can really appreciate the wins.
Rule #6: Don't Participate in the Wave During A Close Football Game
One might think there is nothing worse than someone standing up in front of you while you are trying to watch a football game. However, there is something worse....when someone stands up in front of you, while you are trying to watch a football game, to do the wave. The wave should be reserved for when your team is winning or losing by so many points that it no longer is necessary to pay attention to the game. Unless this is the case, you are distracting true football fans from what they paid good money to see- football.