sports fans misbehaving, it's nothing new in philadelphia, but is it getting worse? we're talking about local high school games. >> we get insight and experience on working with the man who could be the next supreme court justice. >> and a new program that aims to reduce health care costs good morning. ugly comments shouted from the stands are often common place, we're still leaving down show balls being thrown at santa claus, and now some say it's getting worse. this fight posted online

happened after a recent ice hockey game. dozens of students began fighting after a game. a team who worked at the rink was beaten up when he tried to break it up. his mother says several fans kicked him in the head causing him to blackout. he's now recovering from a concussion and broken nose. joining me is aaron carter who covers high school sports. before that he covered sports at state college. he's also the son of fred carter. thanks for being with us? . >> thanks for having me. >> i want to read a quote after attending a high school basketball game. it refers to what you heard from a fan directed at a student in the game. >> the quote is cripple 22, the man shouted cupping his hands around his mouth, break his legs. first, describe this scenario. set is scene for us. what was the basketball game and

where were you? >> it was a quarter final match up at a high school. where i like to sit as a reporter is i sit behind the scorer's table. pretty good access to everywhere. there was a gentleman sitting two or three rows in front of me. there was an elderly woman to his left and another gentleman who his right. there was a fast break play in the game, and the player fouled hard a player from the other team, and there was a tumble to the ground. the referee stepped in. no altercation or anything like that. there was a foul called. the coach took the player out of the game, and so a few minutes later he puts the player back in the game. that's when i saw a man cup his hands over his mouth and say what he said. >> cripple him, break his legs. >> exactly. it was one of those scenes where i've covered a lot of high school sports. you hear all kinds of things.

this one in particular was particularly unnerving to me because of what was said and how it was said, and that's why i chose the write the column. >> is it the fact that this was a high school game? we mentioned at the beginning the no tore yas incident with santa claus. is it because they're teenagers and high school students? >> i think that's part of it. what i tried is concentrate on was our reaction to it. i included myself in that. everyone in that section of the stands, we all heard it, and or most of us heard it, and i think i didn't see anyone say anything. i didn't say anything, and we kind of allowed it to happen. that was, to me, that was more the conversation that i wanted to try to spark in terms of what can we do when we're put in those situations when we have an unruly fan who makes comments like this that are out of place at a high school game or any game, really.

what's our reaction to it? >> you had time to reflect on this. what would you have done differently? >> that's part of the conversation that i like in reaction to the story is i talked to a few fellow reporters, and we had a conversation on twitter, and i think the consensus was it's not our place as journalists who make a comment in that situation. because our perspective or point of view is to be the observer, not the actual participant, and so -- >> would you have told an official though, as an observer who may have witnessed something that you thought was inappropriate and could have  escalated? >> i think in the future that's what i will do. and you made a good point about escalating. there's no perfect solution to those sorts of things. if you say silent and don't say anything, there's the chance that this person is emboldened and continues to spew these kinds of words, and what happens if someone from another team hears that or another student section hears that and then we have the makings of a combustible situation. you don't want that either.

but i think in the absence of a perfect solution, i don't think we should -- i don't think that should be an excuse for inaction. i think something needs to be done, and whether it's go find at a time-out or halftime or end of a quarter find an official, go find an athletic director or coach or something like that to address the issue, and then it's on them to handle it properly. >> as somebody who's covered college sports, as we mentioned you covered that and covering high school sports in philly. your father played in the pros. do you think it's gotten worse? >> i do think so. i'm not sure why it's gotten worse. maybe some of it is that we tend not to say anything because we tend not to -- i think the fear is that if i say something to that person who is already riled up and emotional, that might escalate the situation. there's a tendency to stay silent. maybe some of that becomes socially acceptable behavior because we don't say anything. i think that it has become a

little bit worse, and some of the things i hear during the course of games are normal fan behavior. come to games, boo, if you want, if you think there's a bad call, say there's a bad call, but it's when you start to cross the line that we get into that area. >> what are you hearing that's crossing the line in addition to this specific thing you mentioned in your article? >> i think there's definitely name calling. there's profanity. there's vulgar language. i think -- and so one of these things and i put this in the column, there were children sitting around this person who made these comments, and so i think that the example that you set is that anything is okay to say during a sporting event, and just because you paid to get into the game, then you can say what you want, and you really don't. there's a lot of people watching, and as adults, as difficult as it is, i know we love our sports, but we have to try to divorce ourself from the emotion and be humans first. >> do you think this is

connected to intense pressures on young athletes? >> i'm not sure. there is a lot of pressure now on athletes. there's pressure for a scholarship with the rising costs of college. there is a lot of pressure. i'm not sure it's so much that. i really do believe that it's become sort of this socially acceptable thing to come to games to yell and scream and say what you want. i think we need to start to take a stand and start to let people know that that's not acceptable. >> is this just a guy thing, or are women participating in that kind of behavior as much as men? >> that's a really good question. i think based on e-mail e responses, both positive and negative, i have received e-mails that women are also making these types of comments at games. it doesn't really separate out across gender lines. i think it's just more of a thing that people do at games. >> and i think you've touched on this, but the issue of it escalating. i mean, just this past week we saw an incident that seemed to

have been related in some way to someone wearing a new jersey devils hat and then the resulting violence. >> right. >> so you touch on this issue that maybe this fear of these ugly comments, these negative words escalating into something worse? >> right. that's the danger. and i think -- in these situations what i would suggest for people to do is if you reasonably assess the situation and you feel like it could become dangerous if you were to say something to someone, and when i say say something, i don't mean angry or nasty, something like calm down. but if you reasonably assess that could erupt into something else, there are other options. you can try to find an official. you can try to find an athletic director. referees do have the power to stop a game and eject someone if they make comments, but it's difficult during the heat of the game to do that. >> what kind of impact do you think this has on the kids? >> it's another interesting

question. being the child of someone who grew up in the public eye, when i played basketball, sixth, seventh and eighth grade, i remember people getting upset with me if i made a move or fouled someone. >> you're fred carter's son. >> you can't do that here. what do you think you are. i remember asking my parents did i do something wrong to make those people so mad at me. my parents said you didn't do anything. some people are just like that. go play your game. but imagine a young person doesn't have parents to tell them that, and how do they deal with that and deal with that internal conflict in themselves? >> aaron carter with the philadelphia infirer, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> you touched on tips in case people have thoughts on what they should do or can do. if you witness a fan taunting a player, experts say it's best to avoid confronting them. more often than that it escalates their behavior. it's best to remove yourself and

your family and seek out an official or police officer who is trained to handle it. next, a local law professor who has worked with president obama's nominees for the supreme court. is merrick garland has moderate as the president think ises he is?

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president obama announced his nomination to the u.s. supreme court. judge merrick garland. for almost two decades he's been the chief judge of the u.s. court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit, joining me now is a professor at temple university. professor, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> you clerked for judge garland? >> yes. i worked side by side with him on all the cases that came before him that year. we did legal research and very careful proofreading and all the lawyers arguments and tried to

figure out what to do in polishing the opinion. it was a hugely influential experience for me. >> now to see him in this position? >> it's amazing. he's somebody who had been on short lists even from 1999 as sort of a prospective. president gore would have chosen him. but i think to see it come almost 20 years later, i think it's an amazing experience, and it's quite unexpected in some regards. >> i want to get your take on what he said in the moments after the president's announcement earlier this week. let's take a listen. >> this is the greatest honor of my life other than my wife agreeing to mary me 28 years ago. >> good thing he mentioned his wife, and later his daughters. were you surprised to see that kind of emotion? >> i think there really are two things important in judge

garland's life, and you see them both on display. one is his job and his service to the country, and the other is his family. and so i think to have his family there in the rose garden, seeing his career at its pinnacle and being vaulted into the possibility of an almost unbelievable position in the supreme court, i think it caught him off guard and is touching. >> he's being described as a moderate, a centrist. would you describe him that way? >> i would. he's a straight shooter. he's been strongly support bid republic ed supported by republicans and democrats, including warren hatch. in 2010 senator hatch said he would be a clear consensus pick, and that he would help him get the votes. that was five years ago. it feels like a lifetime ago. but really a centrist pick, and obama had a choice. he could have picked a nominee

with gold standard credentials and a record and integrity who might appeal to moderate republicans and might be able to be confirmed or there were hundreds of judges, qualified judges, who would have been much more liberal and progressive, and appealed more to the democratic base in an election year. he chose a hopeful pick that hopefully judge gar laland was acceptable candidate to republicans in the senate. >> they have vowed to not hold hearings on this nomination. what kind of legal precedent would that set? >> it's unprecedented. there's never been anything like this in american history. there have only been two nominees that failed for lack of senate action, and it was 30 days before the new president took office, not months before the election. i think it's troublesome that

senator tumy said he's going to block it. instead offed a viedsing a advi consenting, they're doing something. it's dangerous. it's base on the if we can, we will, and i think future democrats and republicans will look back on this year as having set a new and dangerous precedent. >> this nomination would tip the balance of the court and it should be left to the next president is the concern? >> yes. that's happened many times before. for example, not to anyone's credit, when judge alito was nominated, then senator obama voted to filibuster, because he felt he was outside the mainstream. i think it's lucky that failed. a lot of senators talk and even they vote, but never before has there been an blockage of taking action in defeating a nominee, and never one as ideologically

mainstream with the character as judge garland. judge garland, as you said, has been a federal judge for 19 years next week. that's more federal judicial experience than any supreme court nominee in u.s. history. it's more judicial experience than anybody since the 30s. this is a person who absolutely has unimpeachable kcredentials. >> what did he teach you when you were his law clerk in helping to shape your career? >> there were two things we learned right away that were not to be tolerated. one was being careless and being lazy. because judge garland never was. in any room, he's the most prepared in the room. we would go with a tray full of binders and boxes and briefs and cases and arguments. the second thing was never to be

flippant. it suspect the way he operated. i think that his career working for the oklahoma city bombing prosecution, he really focussed on being a lawyer's lawyer and a judge's judge. >> craig greene, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> coming up next on nbc 10 at issue. we'll discuss a program that pairs an unlikely couple a hospital at an insurance company with the goal of lowering costs. stay with us.

health insurers and hospitals are often at odds with costs, but two groups are coming together. dr. steven klasko and dr. anthony koleta are with us. a health collaboration is just

beginning. two teams at jefferson will receive $150,000 each to tackle health issues. one working on treatment for patients with epilepsy. the other group relooworking on reducing infection after surgery. how will this work? >> it came together because they brought like minds together. jefferson independence understand that we have this incredible challenge in our region and country, around the cost and quality of care, and it won't be solved by doing the same old thing. putting together brilliant minds and collaborating with a institution like jefferson made all the sense in the world. >> at jefferson said we're 192 years old. what would happen if we didn't act our age and partnered with another great organization? and we said, the citizens of philadelphia would be well served to take some of the great inno vagss that have happened, and work together, and let's

really bring them to philadelphia and make this the center of health care disruption. >> where will the money come from that the teams are awarded? >> shared 2 million investment shared equally between the two institutions. >> we know the teams, one is focusing on epilepsy research, the more more specifically on bone graft infection. talk about the research. >> i'll just talk about it from high level, and then let steve talk about it from a more specific level. from our stand point, trying to reduce infections with bone and managing difficult epilepsy goes to the heart of prioviding bettr care for patients. if we can make it work, it's to the benefit of patients and members throughout the region. >> specifically we're looking at new methods of delivery. it can take months to get rid of bone infections. the second is people with

epilepsy where medicines don't work. and we've been one of the leaders at jefferson in looking at surgical solutions. we started this out with a hack athonwhere we actually got folks together, i think everybody there combined of 50 people i was probably older than the common combined age, 48 hours of red bull and software development around drones and wearables. think about ibc and jefferson getting together and looking at drones and wearables, that gives you the signal. >> not only is this research certainly innovative and important, but it's meant to lower costs all the way around. >> absolutely. if you can keep people from -- have a lower rate of infections, hip replacements, lower costs and keeping people out of the hospital when they don't need to be there. it's a quality metric that would serve us all well. >> we want people in philadelphia to start looking at ibc and jefferson as a team

working together to provide greater access, greater quality, at a lower cost. we think this is a really good start. >> we want to demonstrate to the nation that you can bring groups together and philadelphia could be the center for innovation for the country. >> it is an unlikely pairing, and we do hear from viewers that their health premiums are going up, their health costs, and you believe this will help to offset that? >> we need to start somewhere, and bringing institutions together that are committed to the city and have always been in that way is a great beginning. >> it's not the best time for philly sports. people need to get excited about something. let's do it in health care and why not ibc and jefferson. >> and the next step, the teams will begin the research soon. >> yeah. we look forward to seeing the results of it. >> we will have entrepreneurs and residents that will be part of this. we'll be bringing people nationally in to help us do these things.

>> thank you to both of you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we should mention that the bacon brothers will be headlining an event for this. it's happening next week. tickets are 10 for students and $100 and up for others. we'll be right back.

>> fans of back to the future are seeing another aspect of the flick crossover to real life. first it was hover boards, now self-lacing sneakers. nike invailed the sneakers. the sneakers will be available right around christmas. in word on what they'll cost. that's it for this edition of nbc 10 at issue. have a great first day of spring and a great week.

welcome to the northwest of england and another significant day in the premier league calendar. manchester city here have a corner kick in the derby against united. headed away, sent back into the penalty area.