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49ers take zero-tolerance approach after Saints fans complain

Don't yell obscenities, don't flip the bird -- and don't even think about insulting anyone's mother.

The San Francisco 49ers and the NFL have adopted extraordinary security measures for Sunday's NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants after New Orleans Saints fans complained of harassment by unruly 49ers faithful last week.

Undercover police will be dressed in Giants' garb and on the lookout for nasty fans. Giants ticketholders will be handed a card as they enter Candlestick Park with details on how to contact police if they feel threatened. And more security cameras and undercover police officers will be in place to identify abusive fans.

Season ticketholders have also been warned to follow the NFL Fan Code of Conduct: no foul or abusive language or obscene gestures and no verbal or physical abuse of opposing team fans.

The nail-biting 36-32 win over New Orleans last Saturday was the 49ers' first playoff game in nine years.

"I apologize for any rudeness that may have happened," 49ers president and CEO Jed York said. "I think you saw 49ers fans who were very excited about hosting a playoff game for the first time in a long time."

Some of those fans ruined the day for a shaken Don Moses and his two teenage daughters. Moses, a longtime Bay Area resident who is from New Orleans, said they were wearing the Saints' colors and prepared for some good-natured ribbing.

Instead, he tells a horror story of fear and humiliation when his daughters asked him why he didn't do anything to stop the hulking 49ers fans who yelled vulgarities and threw footballs at them, screamed in their faces and called their mother a whore.

NFL security director Jeff Miller told The Associated Press that if the security cameras or undercover police catch such abusive behavior by fans on Sunday, they will be yanked from the stadium.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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