Donald Penn Gets Into It With An Abusive Fan

The Raiders, without Derek Carr, dropped a 30-17 game against the scuffling Ravens that wasn’t even quite as close as the score would suggest. Everyone’s frustrated, as what was supposed to be a team capable of making a deep postseason run is now just 2-3. But here’s where I’d like to remind everyone—including insane Raider fans—that it’s just football, jesus, chill out.

Video taken after Sunday’s game shows OT Donald Penn having a confrontation with one fan in the player parking lot, and it’s potentially very scary, considering that the only thing initially standing between the two is a pair of security guards.

(The “21 mil,” which the fan keeps yelling in the video, refers to the two-year, $21 million contract Penn agreed to last month.)

Penn, after seeing the video online, alleged that the fan threw a bottle at his car:

There’s apparently a backstory here, but to try to unwind it might give you a headache. Here’s a video of the fan ranting that Penn, two weeks ago, called him a “bitch” and said he wouldn’t say it to his face. Here’s a screenshot of a DM conversation purportedly showing Penn arguing with that fan (without, naturally, showing what came immediately before those DMs). Here’s an Instagram photo, posted by the fan three weeks ago but apparently taken over the summer, that praises Penn and shows the two of them posing together. And here’s Dominique Penn, Donald’s wife, sharing a chain sent to her that allegedly shows the fan openly musing about getting a payout if Penn attacks him, and saying “I keep dreaming of him punching me if he sees me after the game.”

I don’t know what to take from this, other than that this fan sounds like a piece of shit, and that there is never a bad time for the reminder that when it comes to dealing with obnoxious or even threatening fans, players are wise to not get involved. That’s certainly not fair, but the players have so much more to lose.