The Arizona Cardinals issued an apology over an “isolated incident” with a season ticket holder wearing a pro-Trump hat at their game against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
The team issued a statement to clarify that security at the State Farm Stadium had “misunderstood” policy and forced a fan attending the game to remove her Make America Great Again hat. Susan Rosener, who was headed to see the game with her husband, was reportedly told by a “confrontational;” staffer at the venue that she would not be allowed in with the hat bearing the slogan of former President Trump’s election campaign.
“I hear somebody yell, ‘You can’t bring that in here,'” Rosener told News 12 Phoenix. “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.'”
“If she takes it off, can we get in?” Rosener’s husband had asked the staffer and was reportedly told the hat needed to be discarded in the trash before the season ticket holders would be allowed in.
“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,” Rosener said.
But, it turns out, political attire is not on the list of prohibited items at AZ Cardinals games. The team responded by issuing a statement apologizing and saying they had reached out to Rosener,
“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. 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,” the statement read.
Turning Point Action Field Rep. VP Alyssa Goncales posted about the incident on X, adding screenshots of text messages from others who attended the game.
Happened to others as well pic.twitter.com/wjDCRqHtoB
— Alyssa Goncales (@AlyssaGoncales) September 16, 2024
The Cardinals noted that they had only heard about the one incident.
“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,” the team said in another statement to Fox News Digital. “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.”
Rosener noted that political affiliations should not deter freedom of speech and expressed that the staffer likely had a “bias” against the pro-Trump hat.
“I am super freedom of speech. I could care less if someone had a Kamala Harris hat or T-shirt on,” she told News 12.. “I do feel like part of the problem was this security woman definitely had a bias with my hat.”
