‘Disorderly’ Georgia man hits fans with towel, kicked out of Steelers game, police say

Justin Vellucci | Monday, October 30, 2023 11:42 a.m.

Megan Swift | Tribune-Review

A view from outside of Acrisure Stadium on Pittsburgh’s North Shore

An Atlanta-area football fan who trekked to Acrisure Stadium over the weekend to catch Sunday’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Jacksonville Jaguars also got a trip to a Downtown Pittsburgh jail.

Richard Bryant, 33, of Fairburn, Ga., a suburb 20 miles southwest of Atlanta, remained in Allegheny County Jail on Monday morning on one charge of defiant trespassing, court records show.

Bryant was arraigned in a Downtown court at 1:53 a.m. Monday, court records show. District Judge Robert Ravenstahl Jr. held him in jail on nonmonetary bond.

The trespassing incident started at about 1:40 p.m. Sunday, just 40 minutes into the game, when Acrisure Stadium security tipped off Pittsburgh police about a disorderly fan in section 133, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Section 133 sits on the home-team side of the stadium, near the 30-yard line.

The fan — later identified as Bryant — was “swinging a towel and hitting people seated in his section with the towel,” the complaint said.

The criminal complaint did not specify if Bryant was swinging a Terrible Towel. It also did not specify if he was rooting for the Steelers or Jaguars.

Two police officers escorted Bryant out of the stadium and gave him “an official notice of ejection,” the complaint said. Bryant was told “he was not permitted to reenter the stadium.”

But Bryant did return. Those same two officers were called back to section 133 at 3:21 p.m. They again escorted the Georgia man out of the stadium.

“Due to Bryant’s lack of adherence to police authority and his inability to follow basic commands, in addition to his out of state identification card, I was unable to release him from police custody,” Pittsburgh police Detective Lucas Brudette wrote in the complaint.

Pittsburgh police did not reply Monday morning to a request for comment. An attorney for Bryant was not listed in the court record.

The Pittsburgh Steelers stumbled Sunday in their game on home turf, losing 20-10 to the Jaguars.

The game against the Jaguars was the first match-up in a three-game homestand for the team.