Late in the fourth quarter of the San Francisco 49ers' 32-20 victory on Sunday, Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell was injured. He gave the fans at Candlestick Park a thumbs up as he was carted off of the field. However, those same fans have drawn some criticism for how they acted during the injury. That criticism is not just from the media, but from some 49ers players and even the team's owner. During the injury, fans were performing the wave in order to pass the time.

First of all, according to a tweet from ESPN's Adam Schefter, Campbell was taken to Bay Area hospital where doctors believe "he will be sore but OK." That is certainly good news. Second of all, if you want to do the wave, then go to a baseball game. It really has no place in an NFL game.


Back on topic, the criticism came from a post-game interview with offensive lineman Joe Staley, who was one of several 49ers players that were motioning for fans to stop doing the wave during the game delay due to the injury. "There is a man down there on the field getting carted off, you got fans out there doing the wave, I thought it was disrespectful," said Staley.

Later, Staley tweeted the following:


The criticism did not stop there. Team owner Jed York tweeted the following after the game:


So we asked our fans on Facebook what they thought about the incident. Here are three different responses (word-for-word) to our inquiry.

"I was there and the upper deck opposite side from injury started the wave and they had no idea injury was as bad the stadium got caught up in wave then stopped once they saw stretcher coming out, they didnt know how bad injury was there was no replays on big screens or announcement, just real bad timing"


"I was there. The wave actually had started a bit before the injury, but only really got going after people got bored waiting. Certainly not good taste, and we all did cheer the guy and were happy to see him waive as they carted him off. There were no replays being shown to help us in the stands know what had happened. They did play the "SHHH ..." sounds for "offence at work" to try to keep it down, and then the wave did stop."

"I was there as well, it was out of boredom, fans trying to give some light on the situation, the entire stadium cheered and clapped as he was taken off the field and he gave a thumbs up!!!!"

When brought up within our forums, many fans felt that the bad seeds that have been introduced at Candlestick Park since the 49ers have returned to their winning ways would be filtered out once the team moves to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara next season. They feel that the bad fans, the ones that may have crossed over from the Raiders' fan base (their opinion), would be priced out of 49ers games. Whether or not any of that is true is unknown. Aside from this incident, Candlestick Park has felt less family friendly over the past few seasons and even I would never consider taking my son to a game there unless Jed York himself invited me to his personal suite. This is a shame considering that this is Candlestick Park's final season. Years ago, I probably never would have seen an issue with this.

Jed York even responded to a humorous tweet from a fan.


What are your thoughts on this incident? Were you there? Was it a disrespectful move by the fans? If so, do you believe that things will change for the better once the team moves to Santa Clara? Tell us your opinion by leaving a comment below.

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