Sex toy thrown onto field during Browns-Bengals season opener
Bright green object landed on the turf at Huntington Bank Field; official removed it and play continued amid a rash of similar incidents at other sports events
A bright green sex toy was thrown onto the field during the Cleveland Browns' season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field on Sunday, an incident that did not interrupt play but added to a series of similar stunts at recent sporting events.
The object landed on the field in the second quarter. Video circulated on social media and reporting by The Athletic indicated the item appeared to have been thrown from the east end zone area known as the Dawg Pound. An on-field official is seen in footage grabbing the object and tossing it to the sideline, where a security guard later removed it from view.
Game action was not stopped and there was no immediate indication that stadium security or law enforcement had identified the person who threw the object. An NFL official handled the item on the field before security personnel took possession, according to reports. There was no available comment from the Browns, Bengals or the NFL immediately after the game.
The incident follows multiple episodes this year in which sex toys were tossed onto courts at WNBA games. Several people were arrested in those cases. In Atlanta, 23-year-old Delbert Carver was charged with disorderly conduct, public indecency/incident exposure and criminal trespass after he tossed an object onto the court during a game between the Atlanta Dream and the Indiana Fever affiliate Valkyries. In Phoenix, 18-year-old Kaden Lopez was arrested after an attempt to throw a sex toy struck a man and his 9-year-old niece at a game featuring the Phoenix Mercury. New York police also arrested a 32-year-old man from Ohio in connection with a separate court-throwing incident.
A cryptocurrency group publicly claimed responsibility for a series of such stunts in August and said in an interview that it planned to stage similar actions at other sporting events. It was not clear on Sunday whether the Browns-Bengals incident was connected to that group.
A green sex toy was also thrown onto the field during a preseason NFL game between the Tennessee Titans and Minnesota Vikings last month. Stadiums and leagues have increasingly faced scrutiny over fan behavior after the spate of incidents, and several venues have said they would consider trespass or disorderly conduct charges where appropriate. No arrests were reported in Cleveland related to Sunday’s incident as of the end of the game.
