One more reason to hate football

Now, I preface this with the fact that I knowingly make a value judgment with regards to Football vis a vis other entertainment choices - It's just not my cup of tea. But aside from my own judgmental determinations there are actually some substantive reasons to dislike 'the game'. Namely, the fans.

My friend Chris was relaying a story to me from this week-end, when he attended the UD-JMU game at the University of Delaware. Long story short, some douchebag was calling one of the teams "faggots", etc. Chris valiantly took a stand and told them to shut the fuck up - Go Chris. But unfortunately this is not an uncommon experience (Throck relayed a similar encounter at the Pitt-Notre Dame game a few weeks ago) - what does this say for the game, that it attracts such bigotry into its fan base?

I can't think of the last time that I was at a theater or museum when I heard an audience member or guest call someone a faggot ...now I know that this isn't indicative of every football fan, and I know that there are certainly theater-goers that are homophobes. I bring it up, because it seems that it is still largely acceptable at a football game to call some one a faggot if they don't perform to your expectations.....how/why is this still acceptable?