Mike Celizic

I used to take a good deal of pride in the quality of sports fans in New York. They’re knowledgeable, enthusiastic, dedicated and they have yet to celebrate a championship by trying to burn downtown.

But, as The New York Times reported on Tuesday, they’re only good as they have to be. Like hormone-hopped males everywhere, if you let them behave badly, they will.

And the people who run the state-owned Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, have allowed Jets fans to turn a portion of the building into a strip club.

So much for classy New York fans.

According to The Times, a tradition has grown up on one of the four giant, spiral ramps that provide access to the stadium, and it isn’t the sort most people would want to take their children — or their wives, sisters and mothers, for that matter to participate in. At half time, several hundred males congregate on the ramp, grab a smoke, quaff their beers, and greet any woman adventurous or foolhardy enough to join them to “Show your bits.”

I’ve tidied up the language there, but you can probably figure the rest out for yourself. The Times reported that some women oblige, generating a more energetic response than the team does during the game. Others risk getting groped, being spat on, or having beverages hurled at them.

And while this frat house behavior goes on, the stadium’s security guards keep their distance and do nothing except, perhaps, enjoy the scenery. The reporter, David Picker, wrote that when he attempted to interview a guard, he was taken away by people who threatened to arrest him if he didn’t surrender his tape recorder, no doubt in the name of homeland security.

The article also quoted a Meadowlands official as saying that the management is aware of the bawdy behavior but can’t figure out what to do about it. After all, there are hundreds of fans, and guards can hardly catch all of them. So, instead of trying, they threaten to arrest a reporter who’s doing a job that is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Increasingly, that’s how law enforcement works in this country: it’s a lot easier to arrest someone taking notes or pictures than it is to deal with the problem.

I’m embarrassed, as should be the Jets and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which used to take pride in the way it ran Giants Stadium, the Meadowlands race track and Continental Arena. Apparently, it’s easier to look the other way than to do the right thing. And they probably go home and wonder why society seems to be degenerating.

And it’s not because women with either a desperate need for attention or a healthy disrespect for social convention may want to pretend the entrance ramp is Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. I’ve no objection to topless women and I never objected if my children saw a stray boob in its natural habitat. I always found it curious that the folks who rate movies didn’t care if my kids saw murder and mayhem but went ballistic if an earthy epithet or a glimpse of a personal body part slipped into the production.

That said, crowds of beered-up males urging women to expose themselves and reacting obscenely whether they do or don’t are not what I consider to be acceptable behavior in a family facility. I wouldn’t want my kids exposed to a culture that objectifies women in that manner, and I prefer that they don’t grow up thinking this is a cool way for men and women to behave in public.

My rule is that if your behavior makes other people uncomfortable, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. I’ll make an exception for legitimate political protests, but not for vulgar titillation. And this behavior makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

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