Sunday March 8, 2020: Exuberant DC Defenders fans took to building a beer cup snake in the Audi Field end zone. (Creative Commons)
In the XFL’s Washington D.C. market, thirsty football fans are currently readying their beer bellies in preparation for the next DC Defenders home game, where the home team is as sure to win as it is sure we will witness boisterous fans construct another lengthy beer cup snake.
A beer snake is a stadium entity created using a multitude of empty plastic cups, typically the type of cups provided by a stadium’s beer vendor. When fans put one cup into another, these plastic cups serve as the flexible building pieces for creating a pretty snazzy beer snake.
Beer snakes have appeared in stadiums for about as long as beer has been served in plastic cups. The first such reports of a beer cup snake was on June 24, 1969, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times. Since then, beer cup snakes have been popular at cricket matches, mainly because the length of these events cause a multitude of beer cups to build up in the fan areas. Stacking the cups into a “snake” seems inevitable.
In Winnipeg, Canada, back in 2010 a similar beer cup snake regularly appeared in Winnipeg Stadium, and it was just as spectacular as anything we’ve seen in DC. The snake was eventually banned by the management of the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and the reaction from the fans was predictable.
Anyone who remembers the Bomber stadium beer cup snake, or anyone who enjoys lager-soaked plastic cups being stacked, will surely get choked up during this touching video.
XFL Fans in Washington, DC, started their tradition in 2020, reportedly at a home game against the New York Guardians. It was on March 8, 2020, during an exciting win over the St. Louis BattleHawks, where the DC beer cup snake came into its own. Fans formed a beer snake of approximately 1,200 cups, including one cup provided by the XFL commissioner at the time, Oliver Luck.
“At the end of the third quarter the score was 12-6 for DC. The broadcast cut to the end-zone stands where the beer cup snake now extended all the way up the bleachers. They took the time to pan through the Audi Field crowd to show what kind of a party was happening. An empty Bud Light Seltzer beer case was even being worn as a helmet. A few minutes later, during a break in action, sideline reporter Jenny Taft came on to report on the ‘Cup Snake’ size. The broadcast crew was clearly having fun with the antics of the DC fans.”
Fast forward to the XFL’s return in 2023. We soon found out that three years of pandemic did not cool DC fans desire to quaff beer and stack the cups into a snake-like entity. It wasn’t that hard to predict the beer snake would make a return to Audi Field, as it did in the DC Defenders opening home game on Sunday February 19, 2023. However, this time stadium security had a different take on the snake. They confiscated the cups and disallowed snake construction. The negative reaction from fans was predictable, and manifested in lemons raining down on the field.
Eventually someone from the league stepped in and convinced stadium security to allow snake-building, lest the lemon rain would continue and disrupt the remainder of the game.
Before the next DC Defenders home game, XFL leadership embraced the snake, making the decision to officially allow beer-snaking in all its glory, as long as certain rules are abided by. Will alcohol-fueled DC snake-builders stick to the rules? You figure it out. We’ve only just begun! There are more chapters to be written.
After further review… the #BeerSnake stands! Welcome back 🍺🐍
Keep the tradition alive and well for all games going forward! Drink responsibly and respect your fellow fans. Rules and regulations to follow#DefendDC | #XFL2023pic.twitter.com/T4uJrSsgnj
A little known fact is how New York Guardians fans attempted to build their own beer cup snake at MetLife Stadium on February 9th, 2020, at their opening home game versus the Tampa Bay Vipers. The cups got to be about a yard high when “Cup Guy” said, “Screw it! We’re missing a good football game!”
