More and more, Kyle Van Winkle’s death outside Arrowhead Stadium Sunday afternoon is looking like a terrible, easily avoidable tragedy.
Here are the sad, basic facts of the incident, as I have come to understand them from various reports.
Three or four people began whaling away at Van Winkle after he mistakenly got into the wrong vehicle.
Kyle Van Winkle
How do we know it was a mistake? Well, he had arrived at the stadium in a vehicle similar to the one that he got into about 5:20 p.m.
When the punching stopped, Van Winkle, a 30-year-old college graduate who worked at a credit union, was lying unconscious against a parked bus.
A Fox 4 reporter spoke with a woman who said she checked Van Winkle’s pulse and found it strong, at first. A few minutes later, however, after someone yelled that Van Winkle was turning blue, she started performing CPR but could not resuscitate him. Van Winkle, she said, did not throw one punch.
She also said the owner of the Jeep tried to leave the scene before police could question him.
**
That brings us to why – why in the world – this case of an ordinary guy stumbling into the wrong car ended up as a homicide.
The first point that needs to be made is that all the adults involved, including Van Winkle, a Smithville resident, probably were drunk.
Tailgating revolves around drinking. The tailgaters start up in the morning and charge right through the afternoon. Too bad this was a 3:25 p.m. game because the drinkers had three hours more than usual (when games start at noon) to get wound up. If it had been a noon game, Van Winkle probably would have been breathing air and pumping blood right now.
Have you watched those assholes in the parking lot? Yes, I’m talking about all of them – all who set up their shit, start campfires and start knocking back the beers. It’s ridiculous.
Don’t they have anything else to do with their Sunday mornings? What’s the matter with leaving for the game an hour before kickoff, drinking a couple of beers at the game, and going home?
Thanks a lot, Lamar Hunt, for bringing this nasty broth to full boil in Kansas City.
But the drinking is just part of the problem. The other part is that most of those drunks come with their warpaint on – figuratively.
Pro football offers up some beautiful, breathtaking, athletic feats. But at its core it’s about violence – the crashing of helmets, the twisting of limbs and the occasional grabbing of testicles.
Is it any wonder, then, that many fans arriving for the game are in a muscular frame of mind when they arrive? In the parking lots and inside the stadium, the testosterone is flowing, and more than a few women are calling for the Chiefs to yank some scalps out from under the opposing players’ helmets.
Back to Sunday, then. As it is every game day, the environment was ripe for a rush to judgment that Van Winkle was a no-good burglar whose “crime” needed to be dealt with summarily.
How do you think the same incident might have unfolded in the parking lot at Oak Park Mall?
Here’s my guess: The owner of the Jeep, seeing someone in his vehicle, would have lurked back at a safe distance to assess the situation. He probably would have pulled out his cell phone and called 911. He might have looked for security. He might have gone back into a store to have someone call security.
Would he have gathered up three other guys nearby and proceeded to pull they guy out of the car and thrash the shit out of him? In all likelihood, no.
But that’s what we’ve got with pro football these days: players suffering concussions and way too many fans letting their primal emotions run away with them.
**
I guess you want to know if I’m a Chiefs fan. Well, I have been, but for the reasons stated above, my interest has diminished significantly the last couple of years. I haven’t been to a game this year, and, after Sunday’s tragedy, I’m not planning to go back ever again.
I guess you want to know, too, if I’ve ever tailgated at a Chiefs game. No.
I have tailgated at a couple of University of Missouri games — but on fraternity-house grounds, where most people know one another. If somebody happened to get into the wrong car there, he’d just get laughed at, not pummeled to death.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz,
This is terrible. But not all fans tailgate in the way you describe.
Not as often as in the past, I grill, drink non-alcoholic beer and never have a problem. I arrive from church, so the time is not available to tailgate any more. I have never had a person mistakenly get my vehicle. It is locked and there is no room.
But the horrific mistakes of a few should not, in a broad stroke, paint all tailgaters in the same light. There are a few who police themselves with common sense, even when drinking and getting drunk. Many will not, or cannot, pay the prices of the booze once in the stadium.
Obviously, the key is not to go to the game and drink an ocean of booze, but for the price paid to “rent” a four-by-six piece of Jackson County — which the fans already “own” — they should tailgate as they choose.
I heard in the media “there are no answers” to the events that led to the death after Sunday’s Chiefs game.” Well Fitz, you had details.
Prayers and condolences to the friends and families of Van Winkle. He should be alive today.
I think you’ve got the solution, Larry: Start with church, then drink as non-alcoholic beer all afternoon.
Jim,
I knew Kyle Van Winkle from my work with him and Community America C U.
He was a good guy, and very kind.
Your blog is dead on, unfortunately.
He was accidentally at the wrong vehicle in a bad, drunked-up environment.
I go on occasion to Chiefs games. The after environment there is disgusting.
The Hunts need to Step up: Limit the hours of what has become Stupid tailgating.
I think limiting the hours is an excellent idea, Bob. My recommendation would be opening the gates at 10 a.m. for a noon game and 1 p.m. for a 3:25 game. Those intent on getting drunk can just double the pace.
I think Fitz is dead on the money here and the bell is tolling for the National Felons League too.
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/page/popwarner/pop-warner-youth-football-participation-drops-nfl-concussion-crisis-seen-causal-factor
I am no stranger to getting hammered at the Chief’s games, did it many times back in the 80’s. I am sure I was too loud and laughed too hard after 6 to 10 brewskies. No doubt I offended some with my boorish behaviour and for that I am sorry. Fitz is right, the testosterone is flowing and the violence on the field permeates the stadium. Many prayers for this poor guy who lost his life for nothing.
I read that story about youth football starting to wane, Chuck. I like your twist on the N.F.L., too…
Pro football is going to be with us a long time, but I think it will gradually become a marginalized sport, like boxing and horse racing. Boxing and horse racing, of course, used to be the Great American Sports, but we have seen how deaths on the track and deaths in the ring have pushed those sports to the margins. I think it’s likely that we will see a player die on a a pro football field in the years ahead. If that should occur, watch what happens to those TV ratings.
A story posted on The Star’s website this morning says the Jackson County medical examiner has ruled Van Winkle’s death a homicide, meaning, as The Star’s Christine Vendel reported, “the death was caused by the hands of another.”
Vendel went on to say that the ruling does not necessarily mean murder charges will be filed. “Homicides can be justified, considered self-defense or charged as voluntary or involuntary manslaughter,” she explained.
In today’s published edition of The Star, Vendel reported that Van Winkle had been married since 2011 and that his wife gave birth to a son seven weeks ago. Vendel also quoted police as saying the owner of the Jeep that Van Winkle mistakenly got into was not involved in the fight.
Van Winkle’s father, a Grandview police sergeant, told police that a group including himself and his son had tailgated before entering the stadium. Early in the game, the father said, his son excused himself to go to the restroom and never returned. His father said he saw no signs that Kyle was intoxicated or feeling ill.
One of the reasons why i bought season tickets to the Sporting KC events is that the games are still family friendly (and reasonably priced). Same goes with the T-Bones games. I’ve never gone to a Chiefs game, and wouldn’t and rarely go to a Royals game for the same reason. Two good tickets and parking at a Royals game will set you back at least a hundred bucks. Why would I spend that so I could listen to a bunch of foul mouthed drunks?
The Chiefs games are even worse from a financial stand point. If memory serves I saw a friend’s ticket and it was $150 for a seat in the nose bleeds plus $27 for parking. Really, $300 plus for lousy seats crammed in with a bunch of drunks acting like children. I don’t think so.
I know many people who a) can’t afford to go to these games, and b) wouldn’t if they could because they’re not a place you want to take your kids.
If that’s your thing, save the $300 and go to a sports bar with a big screen. You’ll stay warm, see more of the game and you can still cheer with the rest of the drunks.
“The Chiefs and the NFL spend a sufficient amount of money providing security in the stands and the parking lot” — said no one ever.
I am a 20+ year season ticket holder. It’s pretty unbearable out there now.
You read stories from other cities about fan behavior–now its here, sadly.
If they’ve got security officers in the parking lots, I’ve never seen them. Parking attendants, yes; security, no. Obviously, it’s a crying need, and I would think the Chiefs will make some significant changes and upgrades in the security situation as a result of this tragedy.
You talked about it being “pretty unbearable out there now.” I remember fondly attending games in the 70s, when the Chiefs were losers, and sitting in the upper deck, enjoying the sun and the laid-back crowds…well, not crowds, exactly, just fellow fans scattered about in the upper deck.
Of course, the losing wasn’t fun, and Lamar hated mediocrity on the field, but, in retrospect, those were my favorite years at Arrowhead. Expectations were low, and people went out there mostly to pass a pleasant afternoon. For me, those are happy memories from a bygone era. I don’t think we’ll ever see it again. Pro football has changed drastically, and so has society; aggression and immediate gratification are much more the order of the day.
The early 90s were great. You knew everyone around you because they were all season ticket holders. Once they stopped going, and sold their tickets to who knows who is when the problems started. Lots of drunks who yell the most obnxious things. Good Lord, one cannot imagine. And the price of a ticket is getting too high. I won’t paint a brush on all, but there is a problem out there. Whether the Chiefs or the NFL want to recognize it –which I doubt they ever will–mainly because of money, mainly because they are marketing the brand to corporate America and not the average fan.
Fitz,
According to today’s article in The Star, the people who were summoned to “help” with the situation by the 10-year-old boy were tailgaters who had been watching the game on television in the parking lot. WHY do people want to pay $27 to park and hook up a generator or drain a car battery to watch the Chiefs game on TV? And if they didn’t even have tickets to get inside the stadium, then it’s a bigger WHY as in why the hell were they there in the first place?
This is a big story that merits a good deal of investigation. Were the people who caused this man’s death in that parking lot without tickets to the game? If they had tickets, WHY were they out in the parking lot at 5:20 p.m. when it was still the 3rd quarter and the Chiefs were still in the game? Were they ejected from the stadium? And if so, why didn’t stadium personnel make sure they were off the premises entirely? Were the parties intoxicated? Er uh, make that how intoxicated were they?
Just an absolute tragedy.
The whole thing — the tailgating scene, the drunkenness — is just red-neck entertainment, sorry to say.
Red-neck entertainment which, in this case, has had some very serious consequences.
Wait, what?
Okay, first, I’m not a sports fan; I don’t understand the appeal; and I don’t come from a family of sports fans (which may be why this all seems so foreign to me). Football in particular—I can’t understand why anyone would think it is entertaining to watch overpaid, juiced-up idiots give each other traumatic brain injuries (or especially why anyone would ever let a child play it). It’s a game of violence. A game that people play and everyone is supposed to accept that this is a real, legitimate job (much more important and valuable to society than being a teacher, police officer, firefighter, social worker, nurse, etc., etc….) and that the men who play it should be seen as heroes, despite their all-too-frequent brushes with the law and violence against women. But whatever, of course I understand that we’re all different and different people like different things. (Even though I do take the view that this “sport” and others like them are indeed bad for society and that the prominence of these sports in our culture is harmful and baffling.)
But back to the issue at hand, this preventable tragedy: I have been horrified by the news of this man’s death. I hope that everyone has been, though I have seen and heard comments about how “well, what was he doing in someone else’s car?” as if that’s a reason to kill! Each story I’ve read about this just horrifies me more…drunk football fans punched a man repeatedly, until he was dead. WHAT? … And yet, I guess I’m not completely surprised that a bunch of pumped-up drunk idiots who get off on watching violence for fun would do this. Alcohol helps this kind of thing happen, too, of course.
So I guess that all this time, whenever anyone mentioned “tailgating,” I thought that meant people showing up before the game to hang out for a little while and then going and sitting and watching the game in the stadium. But this comment….forgive me, but are people really just sitting in the parking lot all day and watching the game on TVs that they actually brought with them? Seriously? WHY? Why not watch it at home, if this violent game is so important to you? Why not have friends over and watch it together, if you want to hang out with other people so much? Why is this even allowed? To my way of thinking, people who don’t have tickets for the game have no business even being there, much less hanging out all day! (All day! Damn. What a waste of time…seriously, they have nothing better to do?)
I guess I just don’t get it. I mean, that’s not news…but I just don’t get why this is a thing, why this stupid waste of time is allowed, tolerated, or celebrated. But if that’s really what people are doing, it should be stopped immediately. Meanwhile, a baby has a dead dad and a woman has a dead husband and some grandparents have a dead son because he went to a football game and accidentally got into the wrong car. There’s no way that will ever make any sense, and one day, those people are going to have to explain the unexplainable to that child. This death and the pain of his loved ones should and could have been prevented; ending this ridiculous tailgating could help prevent a similar future tragedy. What a shameful, awful waste.
Andrew, it is gambling. Fantasy Football, office pots, Monday Night Tie Breakers, gambling drives this bus.
I bet the NFL every week and have played Fantasy football for 20 years with the old “Brandsmart” league. It is probably the easiest sport for folks with a cursory interest in sports to actually wager on.
If I didn’t wager cash on these guys every week, I would never watch it.
By the way, no one I know as a gambling problem, really. I am not saying gambling addiction is not real, I know it is, but keep in mind, we are talking about 20 to 40 bucks a week and if you are not brain dead, you can almost hit 500. If you really try, weather, injury reports, in a dome, slow track, match ups, short weeks, travel, who got a DUI, etc etc, you can come out ahead 2 out of three years. So even folks making 25K can bet a couple of bucks here and there. Kinda like golf, 2 bucks a hole.
I meant to say, “No one I know HAS a gambling problem.”
Again, I am in no way making light of gambling addiction, I am just saying if you have a couple cans of beer on the weekends, that does not make you an alchoholic.
Andrew writes that people who don’t have tickets for the game have no business even being there. I couldn’t agree more. And if the people responsible for this man’s death were simply at Arrowhead to tailgate rather than go inside and watch the game, then the Chiefs need to seriously rethink this policy. But I’m not going to hold my breath considering that there are enough idiots and no-lifers out there who will plunk down $27 to watch a football game from a parking lot. They’re a cash cow for the Chiefs.
I’m afraid you’re right, Mike…One curious aspect of this story is that, as far as I can tell, no one in the reporting ranks has asked the Chiefs front office if this tragedy has prompted a review of tailgating policies. All the reporting has been focused on the unusual circumstances and the tragedy. That’s not a bad thing, of course, but questioning the Chiefs front office would seem to be a logical parallel. And I would think that the less pressure — questioning –the Chiefs are put to, the less likely it is that they would implement any changes. Unfortunately, the Chiefs have been given a pass.
If you were reporting the story, Mike, I have no doubt you would have homed in on the Chiefs very quickly.
Jim,
“It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. ” I love a good analogy and this one fits perfectly. It would seem that one man who acted inappropriately has labeled a crowd of over 80 thousand people as a rowdy bunch with no regard to human life. Sure, there may be more than one bad apple at a Chiefs game, but there are far more good people out there than bad ones.
The truth is that a vast majority of the people are there to have a good time and enjoy the company of friends at a sporting event. I myself have enjoyed several opportunities to enjoy tailgating and have never had a bad experience.
This is really an isolated incident that could have happened just as easily at Westport or one of the casino parking lots or a number of other places where large numbers of people congregate.
If this happened at the Plaza Lighting would you want to put an end to that too?
I’m unsure about your use of redneck also. Does it really apply here? The implication is that a bunch of poor working class white people are out of control and need to have their right to assemble removed lest they strike again. I don’t really think this is the case. Also, redneck is kind of a double edged sword as some people embrace the word as meaning a “good ‘ol boy” who works hard for a living and others use it in a bigoted sense.
Unfortunately there will never be an end to things like this as long as humans walk the earth. You can take something away and something else will always take its’ place.
I’m sorry that you don’t enjoy tailgating but I’m not going to hang my head in shame or feel responsible for what happened because I have engaged in that activity.
I’d be willing to bet if you have enjoyed some of the good times tailgating that I have, you would have a slightly different view.
I don’t know anything about the guy who beat Mr. Van Winkle to death, but I’m sure his day didn’t start with “Who’s life will I end today?”. I would speculate he is one of those “bully” types that has been in a lot of bar fights who finally had it catch up with him. He will go down with manslaughter charges, but I hope he lives the rest of his life with deep regrets for what he has done and also hope it torments him to no end.
As your friend I respectfully agree to disagree with you on this one.
Hope you and your family all have a safe and Merry Christmas.
Jason
Oh, oh…I should have anticipated running into you (as a bug hitting a windshield) on this one, Jason. You expressed your position — and that of all tailgaters — well. And your point is excellent about the Plaza lights. One thing, though, it wasn’t just one bad apple who administered the beating; apparently it was three or four. That’s a mob when it comes to ganging up on one drunk, skinny guy. No doubt in my mind that mob mentality and people agitated in an atmosphere of violence — pro football — directly resulted in this terrible overreaction to a guy falling asleep in the wrong car.
My understanding is (facts are a little sketchy) that only one person out of the group who confronted Van Winkle is accused of punching him, but I did concede (opening paragraph) to the fact that more than one bad apple shows up at Chiefs games.
If it was more than one person involved in beating him, I hope they all get the same treatment (assuming justice is served).
My honest opinion is that if this had happened pre/post game, someone would have stopped this beating. Most of the fans that come out are good people and would not stand by and watch this happen. Unfortunately, there are not many people around to help in the parking lot during the third quarter.
I personally see this as murder 2 but he will likely get manslaughter charges.
In my eyes. That is the bigger problem. This guy (or group) had no right to attack a defenseless person. The way the case is being handled leads me to believe the prosecutor’s office is not sure what to do yet. Murder 2 will be harder to pin down than manslaughter. I put my money on a plea bargain.
What I would like to see is an example made here to let people know that this kind of behavior is not tolerated in the parking lot of Arrowhead or anywhere else.
My $0.02
For the record, I have no issues with people who tailgate outside Arrowhead and then go in to watch the game. It sounds like the people responsible for this man’s death were at Arrowhead with no intention of going inside. And yes, Fitz, if I were a reporter covering this tragedy or an editor, I would be pitching a weekend enterprise story on the tailgating policies and, in particular, why people go there simply to tailgate. I’m fairly confident that, even with its heavily reduced staff, The Star is working on such a story.