Arizona Cardinals apologize to fan forced to throw MAGA hat in garbage

'My husband would kill me if I did something with the season tickets or that jeopardizes them somehow.'

Published Sep 19, 2024  •  Last updated 4 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Arizona Cardinals fans are seen during a game against the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium. Getty Images

The Arizona Cardinals did a whole lot right in their blowout win over the L.A. Rams on Sunday, but one of their stadium’s security guards made a major mistake.

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A season-ticket holder of the NFL team says that she was forced to remove a “Make America Great Again” hat in order to enter State Farm Stadium for the Week 2 tilt.

In an interview with News 12 Phoenix, Susan Roesner said that a security told her “You can’t bring that in here,” in reference to the hat.

“She’s like, ‘No political hats or shirts.’ And I said, ‘I haven’t heard that at all.’ And I said, ‘That doesn’t make sense to me.’ And she goes, ‘I said, take your hat off,'” Rosener said.

“In retrospect, I wish I would have stood my ground a little bit, but I wasn’t sure what the repercussions would be and my husband would kill me if I did something with the season tickets or that jeopardizes them somehow,” she added, noting that she threw the hat in the garbage so that she and her husband could attend the game without further incident.

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Rosener also said that she spoke to a guest services representative, who reiterated that MAGA hats are not allowed inside State Farm Stadium during Arizona Cardinals games.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the team confirmed that it has reached out to the aggrieved fan.

“In an isolated incident at Sunday’s game, a stadium security member misunderstood a policy on prohibited items. Like most venues, ‘signage, posters, flags, or displays that are … political in nature’ are not permitted. However, that did not apply in this instance,” the statement read.

“Moving forward we will work to provide clarity to all stadium personnel in these situations. We have also reached out to the individual involved to communicate that their experience was not consistent with our policies and practices and to apologize for that.”

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The incident initially was publicized by Alyssa Goncales of Turning Point Action, a conservative political advocacy group, and alleged that other similar incidents had occurred at the stadium.

Goncales posted several screenshots of text messages with other supposed attendees who were either also forced to remove MAGA hats or witnessed others being forced to.

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“We have only heard from one individual. But if there were a couple others that had a similar interaction that should not have happened either. Again, it’s not our practice and in the 18+ seasons we’ve been in this stadium, it apparently has never occurred previously.”

“Moving forward, though, we will work with all of the third party groups that interact with our fans to make sure this abundantly clear,” the team said in another statement to Fox News Digital in response to the other allegations.

While the Cardinals do have a list of banned items, “political hats or shirts” are not on that list.

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