Cardinals caught forcing fan to throw away MAGA hat to enter NFL stadium

The Arizona Cardinals have apologized to a woman who was told she had to remove a “Make America Great Again” hat to enter State Farm Stadium for the team’s game against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

The team confirmed contacting the woman in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

“In an isolated incident during Sunday’s game, a member of stadium security misunderstood a policy on prohibited items. As with most venues, ‘signs, posters, flags or displays of a political nature’ are not permitted. However, this does not apply in this instance. Moving forward, we will work to provide clarity to all stadium personnel in these situations. We have also reached out to the individual involved to let them know that their experience was not consistent with our policies and practices and to apologize,” the statement read.

The woman, a Cardinals season ticket holder from Arizona, was identified as Susan Rosener. She and her husband were heading to their seats to watch the Cardinals’ surprising 41-10 win over the Rams when a stadium staffer mistakenly asked her to remove her hat, which featured former President Trump’s famous campaign slogan, according to multiple reports.

“You can’t bring that in here,” the employee said, according to Rosener, via News 12 Phoenix.

“She said, ‘No political hats or shirts.’ And I said, ‘I’ve never heard of that.’ And I said, ‘That doesn’t make sense to me.’ And she said, ‘I said, ‘Take your hat off,’” Rosener said. “In hindsight, I wish I had held on a little bit, but I wasn’t sure what the repercussions would be, and my husband would kill me if I did anything with the season tickets or if it endangered them in any way.”

The incident was initially made public in a post on X by Turning Point Action Field Representative Vice President Alyssa Goncales, who also posted alleged screenshots of text messages with other supposed participants who were also forced to remove their MAGA hats or witnessed others being forced to do so.

“We only heard from one person. But if there were others who had a similar interaction, it shouldn’t have happened either. Again, this is not our pattern and in the 18+ seasons we’ve been at this stadium, this has apparently never happened before. Going forward, however, we will work with all third-party groups who interact with our fans to make sure this is crystal clear,” the team said in a separate statement to Fox News Digital in response to the other allegations.

Although the Cardinals have a list of items prohibited from entering State Farm Stadium on game days, “political hats or shirts” are not on that list.

A friend of a friend went to the @AZCardinals Yesterday she wore her very stylish black Make America Great Again hat. As she is about to enter the stadium, a security guard stops her and tells her she can’t enter the stadium with her hat on.

The security guard then… pic.twitter.com/5nLeYTKUgI

— Alyssa Goncales (@AlyssaGoncales) September 16, 2024

Sunday’s incident is not the first time that an attendee at a US sporting event carrying pro-Trump merchandise has faced security orders.

In the spring and summer of 2021, a man was ejected from MLB games at Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Citizens Bank Park for hanging banners in the stands that read “Trump Won! Save America!” The man, Dion Cini, now a conservative political influencer on X-rated social media, has repeatedly posted body camera footage of himself being escorted out of stadiums by police.

On June 27 of that year, Cini posted on X (then known as Twitter) images of an alleged letter from MLB informing him that he had been banned from MLB games until further notice.

Cini commented on the recent incident involving Rosener in an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

“That’s who we are, and the fact that she did it and she canned it is why they asked her to do it, because they know she would probably comply. And that basically sums up the state of America right now,” Cini said. “You’d have to kill me to take off my MAGA hat without forcing her! I’ve never taken off my MAGA hat for anybody.”

Arizona is considered one of the key Sunbelt states in the upcoming elections, as Trump won the state in 2016 but lost it in 2020.

A Fox News election poll released on August 28 shows Vice President Harris currently leading the former president by less than a point.

In the Arizona Senate race, Democrat Ruben Gallego leads Republican Kari Lake 56% to 41%. Democrat Jacky Rosen leads Republican Sam Brown 55% to 41% in the Nevada Senate race. In the North Carolina gubernatorial race, Democrat Josh Stein leads Republican Mark Robinson 54% to 43%.

Following the Rosener incident, Lake called on all Cardinals fans to wear MAGA hats at the team’s home games for the remainder of the season.

“Every (Cardinals) fan who loves America should wear their MAGA hat to EVERY AZ Cardinals game this season,” Lake wrote in a post on X in response to a post about the incident.

At the same time, concerns about whether illegal immigrants will be able to vote in upcoming elections have become commonplace in the state during the current cycle.