National Football League

Father, son booted from NFL game over a beer

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:27 p.m. ET

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By Andy Nesbitt, FOXSports.com Arizona Cardinals season-ticket holder John Coulter wanted to take a picture while at Saturday's Cowboys-Cardinals preseason game. The only problem? He had a beer in his hand. We all know trying to get a good photo while holding a beverage can be tough to pull off. So he asked his 15-year-old son to hold his beer for a second while he snapped the shot. Seems innocent enough, right? Wrong. A few minutes later Coulter and his son were escorted out of the stadium by two undercover officers with the Arizona Department of Liquor, who said what Coulter did was illegal. USA TODAY Sports has the details:

"I thought it was a candid camera joke, I really did," Coulter told USA TODAY Sports. "We just watched the opening kickoff and I wanted to take a quick picture. I literally handed my son my cup and said hold my cup, I reached into my pocket, grabbed my cell phone, put it on camera mode and took a picture."

That's when the undercover officers approached Coulter and said he could be arrested.

"I normally would support the police if I heard a story like this,: he told USA TODAY Sports. "However in this case I was standing right there and I witnessed abuse and overzealous pursuing of the situation. It was totally uncalled for."

An officer told USA TODAY Sports that Coulter was lucky he wasn't arrested for having his son hold his beer.

"Providing alcohol to an underage person or an underage person in possession of alcohol is a Class 1 misdemeanor." said Sgt. Wesley Kuhl of the Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control. "The consequences could be up to, and this is a maximum, of two years in jail, $2,500 fine and three years probation."

Moral of the story: If you're going to take a picture at an NFL game and you have a beer in your hand put that beer by your feet and then snap away. Or give it to someone over 21. Whatever you do, don't give it to your 15-year-old son or you could find yourself heading home a little early.