You can observe this principle in action during the annual Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. But Bulls, like professional athletes in general, are best observed either on TV or from a safe distance and behind sturdy fencing. Even so, that childhood longing to feel the glare of the lights is mighty strong. ...

And sometimes these desires get the better of the maladjusted among us. So we run onto the field of play and do something irredeemably dumb, sometimes felonious and occasionally sinister. In return, we get infamy, a trip to the pokey, a hefty fine and maybe even a forearm shiv from an agitated NFL lineman. Is it worth it? Of course not. Heck, most networks won't even give you airtime anymore.

Still, we're led to wonder: Where does the defrocked priest rank among the all-time Top 10 Most Idiotic Sports Fans? We're here to break it down. And remember, defrocked priest and your ilk, we're not here to honor you; we're here to ridicule you.

10. Robin Ficker

It's pathetic enough to be a Washington Wizards fan, but a Wizards fan with an attitude? Ficker, back in the days of U.S. Airways Arena (formerly the Capital Center) made a name for himself by relentlessly heckling opposing players from his seat behind their bench. So annoying was Ficker that the NBA started printing stern warnings about verbal abuse of players on the back of game tickets. But once the new MCI Center went up, Ficker lost his courtside seats.

9. Morganna

Remember her? Remember those? Morganna the Kissing Bandit was the buxom baseball groupie who made a cottage industry out of running onto the field to smooch ballplayers. She famously did so to George Brett during the '79 All-Star game, but there were countless others, back when it was cute to run on to the field. She retired in 1999 or thereabouts, presumably due to back problems.

8. Spike Lee

Celeb fans are always an annoying lot, but Spike takes top honors. In '94, he jawed with Reggie Miller, and Reggie responded by almost single-handedly felling Lee's beloved Knicks. As if he hadn't already eaten enough crow, Lee later wrote the forward to Miller's biography. Bragging rights? Well, Reggie's the better baller, and he never directed Summer of Sam.

7. Jeffrey Maier

This is why many people harbor an intense disdain for the Yankees. On Oct. 9, 1996, in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, Derek Jeter hit a shot to right field that Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco camped under for a sure out. But a 12-year-old kid named Jeffery Maier reached over into the field of play, snatched a sure out from Tarasco's glove of and, thanks to an agreeably incompetent umpire, became a Gotham hero. Think Steve Bartman (see below) with better timing and "oh, he's just a kid" cachet.

6. Fan Man

A.k.a., the most interesting thing to happen to the heavyweight division in 20 years. You'll probably recall that Fan Man crashed the 1993 Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield title bout. He sailed into Caesar's Palace powered by, you guessed it, a fan. The only thing dumber than his stunt was the decision of Bowe's brainless entourage to beat him senseless while he was tangled in the ropes. Sadly, Fan Man took his own life in the Alaskan wilderness in 2002.

5. Steve Bartman

Yes, the guy who got all up in Moises Alou's foul-ball business on Oct. 14 in last year's National League Championship Series. He's not the ultimate interloper (since it was a foul ball), and the Cubs certainly get most of the blame for the Game 6 tank job against the Marlins. Still, if Bartman lets Alou do his thing, the Cubs might have been in the World Series. At least he gave Chicagoans a good idea for their Halloween costumes.

4. The Arizona State student body

On Jan. 20, 1984, two days after his father was brutally murdered in Lebanon, Steve Kerr took the floor for the University of Arizona basketball team. They were playing archrival Arizona State, and Kerr, then a freshman, would go on to score 20 points in the first half alone. But what was most memorable, sadly and disgustingly, was that the ASU fans, during the game, began chanting "PLO" at Kerr in seeming honor of his father's killers.

3. The defrocked priest

And now we come to the inspiration for this little jaunt through the annals of spectator ignominy. If you're wearing a green beret, red kilt and knee-high socks, you're probably crazy. If you wear those and attack the leader of the Olympic marathon, you're certifiable. That's Cornelius Horan, an Irish defrocked priest, who likes to dangerously insert himself into major sporting events. About a year ago, he ran into the middle of a 200-mph British Grand Prix. And this time around, he cost Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei de Lima a gold medal.

2. William Ligue and son

Ah, the timeless tradition! Fathers, sons and baseball. In the Ligue family, that tradition also entails getting soused, losing the shirts and attacking the opposing first-base coach. Ligue, along with his teenage son, attacked Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa on Sept. 19, 2002 at Chicago's Comiskey Park. With one out in the top of the ninth, the Ligues emerged from the stands behind first base, knocked Gamboa to the ground, and started battering the 54-year-old coach. Only William Ligue can make your garden-variety Little League parent look like a bastion of equanimity.

1. Gunther Parche

Like the Ligues, Parche went beyond the lines of mere idiocy into dangerous lunacy. In 1993, 19-year-old Monica Seles was the best female tennis player in the world. But on April 30, she was stabbed during a match by Parche, who was a crazed Steffi Graf fan and wanted to see Graf recapture her spot atop the sport. Inexplicably, Germany declined to prosecute the man who tried to murder Seles. As a result, Seles to this day refuses to play in Germany.