Edit: Some people pointed out that “mass looting” is more or less propaganda. I edited the title to be accurate.
Newsweek isn’t accurate, in general. I thought it was newsworthy that there was a riot after the game, but maybe I should not be feeding into a right-wing mythology about “lawless left-wing cities,” which this story pretty definitely is doing.
When I was in college, our sportsball team won a game against the other guy’s sportsball team by not many points. Many hundreds of students started a chant going out of the sportsball arena, and four freshmen decided to light a couch on fire, apparently thinking they’d just blend in. The police were there immediately, firefighters put out the couch in a few minutes, and they all got hit with fines.
In short, I think you’re exactly right, and most sportsball fans just want to be loud and drink.