This menacing individual, as many of you probably know by now, is Michael Axelrod, the fan that Antonio Davis sprinted into the stands Wednesday night to save his wife from. But word's beginning to trickle out now, as first reported here yesterday, that it was Kendra Davis who was the instigator of the incident. Axelrod himself gave interviews all day yesterday, and he's convincingly, uh, not scary.
And thing is, now video is backing up his (and our correspondent Tom Malkin's) account to; WLS-TV in Chicago — you have to click on the "Sports" link above — has definitive video of Kendra up in the face of Axelrod, who quite plainly motions for security to come over for help. (Yeah, uh, where was security anyway?)
Antonio Davis has been suspended five games, which seems somewhat excessive to us, considering he couldn't have known that Kendra was the aggressor. (Of course, maybe he should have suspected.) And now Axelrod is suing. And slowly, quietly, the Jay Mariottis of the world are backpedaling from their "drunk fans causing trouble again" storylines — this guy actually wrote "I don't trust fans" in his last column; who exactly does he think is reading it? — and we would like to remind the sports world, next time an incident like this happens and everyone just blasts out-of-control and unruly fans, exactly who it is that pays everyone's salary.
Video: Axelrod And Kendra Davis In Stands [ABC-7 Chicago]
A Differeing View On Davis' Trip Into The Stands [Deadspin]