San Francisco 49ers fan who ran on field said his friends dared him to do it
The teen’s bare-chested sprint up and down the Levi's Stadium turf during Monday Night Football lasted about 30 seconds, all chronicled by Westwood One broadcaster Kevin Harlan’s epic call.
Harlan would have had to detail the journey longer had the teen’s need for self-preservation not kicked in, the teen told USA TODAY Sports.
“I could have juked the guards and been out there longer,” the high school senior said. “I saw the guards from a mile away, so I stopped when they got close. I didn’t want to get tased.”
His field-crashing exploits ended as security guards tackled him at the 40-yard-line. Since the he faces juvenile trespassing charges, USA TODAY Sports chose not to reveal his name.
The 16-year-old from Brentwood, Calif., attended the game with his father, who doesn’t seem to be upset by his son's much-hyped transgression.
“He’s pretty OK with it,” the teen said. “He’s been telling all his friends. I jokingly told my mom and dad that I was going to do it a week ahead of time. My dad said if I did it, I’d be grounded and he wasn’t going to pick me up from jail. After I actually did it, he came and picked me up, and said, ‘Wow. You've got some (expletive).’ That surprised me.”
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Across his torso, the teen had his home phone number written in a black marker.
“When I told my friends I was going to do it, one of them told me to put my number on my chest,” he said.
He admits peer pressure got the best of him as he sat alongside his dad at the game.
“I was sitting there and my heart was pounding,” he said. “I told my friends I was going to do it and then they dared me. I put it on SnapChat that I was going to do it. It would have looked bad if I didn’t. That would have been embarrassing.”
There have been repercussions to the teen storming the field, beyond the trespassing charge.
He’s been banned from 49ers games for a year. (Monday’s game was the first 49ers game he had ever attended.) He also has to take an online video course and write a letter of an apology before he’s allowed to attend games at Levi's Stadium again.
The way he was able to move unmolested on to the field also put focus back on stadium security.
“If I was a terrorist I could’ve, like I don’t know. It was really easy though. Like I wasn’t even trying that hard. Like someone could do something worse,” he told KPIX-TV.
