Fan who flashed laser on Tom Brady banned from Arrowhead Stadium, will face charges
The fan who shined a laser on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC Championship Game has been identified, apprehended, banned from Arrowhead Stadium for life and soon will face charges from the Kansas City district attorney, league sources told ESPN.
After a Kansas City television station identified a fan shining a laser on Brady, Chiefs officials quickly worked to identify the fan by using videotape and eyewitnesses.
The NFL says it will look into a report that a laser was flashed at Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the fourth quarter Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.
“There’s a lot of pride in Kansas City, and we and our fans thought, ‘You don’t do that here,’” one Chiefs official told ESPN.
The Kansas City police department initially wanted to cite the fan with disorderly conduct, but Chiefs officials didn’t feel those charges were strong enough and instead have been pushing for “the harshest penalty possible,” in the words of one source.
The Chiefs want this incident to deter fans from pointing a laser at players at future games, a violation that has more serious ramifications than many realize. Since last month’s conference title game, members of the military have reached out to Brady to inform him that the lasers shined near his face could cause irreversible eye damage, according to another source.