Why is the ‘Beer Snake’ not allowed in the XFL?

The XFL is back after it shut down operations due to the pandemic in 2020, and just after a few days after its reemergence, some of its D.C. fans were displeased when they were not allowed to practice their tradition of creating a beer snake.

Supporters of the D.C. Defenders were making beer snakes throughout the season in 2020. It began as a joke created by fans in Audi Field, but the practice became viral and became the young league’s greatest tradition.

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An end to a short-lived tradition

However, this year fans were disappointed that security put a stop to their attempts at forming one. Security personnel at sporting events often confiscate these beer cups because such structures can potentially cause injuries, like those inflicted on viewers of a Canadian football League Game, leading the Winnipeg Football Club to ban beer snakes during their games.

The cups are also sometimes not completely empty, and drip beer on members of the audience.

Defenders fans were not happy that they were prohibited from making a beer snake, and threw lemons onto the field to show their displeasure. They also started chanting “Free the snake”, which even became a social media hashtag.

The tradition begins

What exactly is a beer snake? Fans collect emptied plastic cups of beer and stack them up, initially vertically, and make the stack “dance” as a snake charmer would. The beer snakes can get longer and span several rows, as people team up with others and connect their creations to elongate the snake.

The one that fans created in March 2020 in the Defenders game against the St. Louis BattleHawks ran the length of the Audi Field end zone seats. Two groups banded together to create a snake that needed more than 1,200 cups emptied and almost 20,000 ounces of beer guzzled.