On a separate note, there are some west coast channels here that seem to have 3 games on a loop; USC UCLA 1993, where UCLA won 27-21, USC UCLA 1996, where UCLA wins 48-41 in 2Ots, and last years semifinal from the Pac-10 Basketball Tournament; USC vs UCLA. Ive had cable for 24 days now, and the semifinal from last years tournament has been on at least 15 days out of 24. Im not saying that its been on 15 times, like, its on at 9 PM, and then repeated again at 11 PM, im saying it was on 15 different days, and most of those days it was on multiple times. Apparently the channel doesnt show anything else involving those teams; e.g. 1996 Rose Bowl USC vs Northwestern, or 1998 Rose Bowl UCLA vs Wisconsin. Just stuff that happens when they play each other. Ill let you know if this changes and they expand their horizons, but for now, I can close my eyes and see J.J. Stokes, Jonathan Ogden, Cade McNown, and Taj Gibson.
But heres why Im writing the post. I need to say something is gonna happen, so when it happens, I can say: "I told you so". I could probably write an article alone on how dumb rushing the field/court at a game is 99% of the time. If your program has any decent amount of respect, it should abstain from this practice. Rushing the field just delegitimizes your program, and makes you look like beating a top 10 team is the highlight of your life. If youre Indiana, and you beat Ohio State, you can rush the field. You would expect something like that. But anyway, the "rush" that caught my attention was when Iowa rushed against Penn State. Whether or not they should have is another story and pretty much irrelevant and a waste of time. But here is whats going to happen one day and allow me to say "i told you so":
Someone is going to get seriously injured.
Im sure someone gets hurt every time a fan base rushes the field. Its impossible not to. Someone falls down, hurts their wrist, twists their ankle, bruises their knee, and they get up, leave, get drunk, pass out, wake up and say "ow, i remember that" and its no big deal. Im 99.9999% positive this happens to at least 1 person for every "rush". Remember, people used to rush and try to tear down the goal post. They found this to be really dangerous, and it was. So, they dont allow that now. They spent thousands of dollars to have goal posts that fold down quickly for the one time that the student section wants to rush the field. But something worse than that is going to happen. I foresee one of two things happening:
1) The less likely scenario: Someone gets trampled and seriously hurt. This may have happened already too, and it just hasnt been covered. You dont need to be a good athlete to sit in the student section. On top of that, everyone knows that good football seats are higher up, and shittier ones are lower down. Therefore, who is more likely to be sitting lower? People who know less about the game. Whos more likely to know less about the game? Women, people who dont play the game, people who dont play sports, etc. (Im not a sexist but its true. I can confidently say if I asked 100 women where the best seats are for a football game that 95 would say "fieldside" or even worse "courtside".) So now, we have this demographic of people sitting low, and "leading" the rush. I say leading, because they may not be leading, they may not want to have any part of it, but they are in front. You know how when people start pushing from 50 rows up, one person pushes on another, then on another, and its a domino effect. Then, these people are let loose to run onto the field. If youre fat and uncoordinated, you can easily get tripped up. Then all you need is a mob that is drunk and so excited that they just beat Oklahoma and no-one even notices that theyre stepping on Suzie from the Delta Chi's face. It could happen.
2) The more likely scenario, and im really, really, really really, surprised it hasn't happened yet: Well it kinda happened once, but I dont remember the details of it. That is, there is gonna be a huge brawl. We saw a few years ago, someone from the losing team punched a fan who ran onto the field, then he quickly got out of there and got into the locker room.
So imagine you are a 6'4" 265 lb linebacker from Joe Schmoe University. You just lost to your bitter rival, John Doe U, on a last second field goal. Whats worse, is that you were undefeated, and Joe Schmoe was one win from advancing to the national championship. On top of it, youre a senior and not projected to go to the NFL. You have just lost your dream. Do you really need a 160 lb engineering student yelling in your face?
Thats a big exaggerated of course. There are so many great competitors in college football. You have to be one, otherwise you're not playing. You dont have to be on an undefeated team, or be a senior, or be your last game or anything to get upset over losing. On top of that, you only have to be human to get upset when some drunk pussy is yelling in your face. Especially when the person is 100 lbs less than you, and you can flick him away like a bug.
Sometimes, its not even like the players can avoid it. How many times have you seen a rush at a football or basketball game, and they show the highlights, and the opposing/losing team is trying to fight through the crowd? Theyre walking and getting through the mob trying to get to a clearer area, and you have all these drunk idiots screaming and elated over the fact that you just lost! I say it again, how is there not an altercation every single time?
Well now you're probably saying, "so stud linebacker clotheslines or sucker-punches John Q. Drunk Frat Boy ---- how does that equal a full out brawl"?
Remember the Ron Artest incident?
Get to the point where Artest went into the crowd, and punched the first fan in the face. Were at this point already, because the crowd is brought into the field of play. The players and the spectators are all mixed together. Artest throws a punch. Our linebacker throws a punch.
What happened in the Artest fight? Every single Pistons fan tried to kick his ass/defend the fan who got punched. If you were running down onto the field (you shouldnt be), and a player from the other team punched your roomate in the face? What would you do? Well, its not like youd be the only one around. You and 10 other people would start shoving him, or trying to tackle him, or hitting him or whatever, you would swarm him. You think that would go over well with his teammates?
Well it didnt go over well with the Pacers either. Stephen Jackson went into the crowd too. Now, I will argue that, he was protecting Artest. Think about it, he wouldnt have gone into the crowd if Artest didnt. If a guy hits Artest with a beer, and he gets up and brushes it off, does Jackson sprint into the stands to find the guy and kick his ass? I would bet pretty heavily on no. Why would he care if Artest doesnt care. But you can bet your ass that Jackson isnt going to sit there and watch his teammate get swarmed by a bunch of drunk fatass fans from Detroit.
The same human instinct plays out in our college football example. The defensive end sees everyone pushing his linebacker. No matter how big the linebacker is, he doesnt stand a chance against 10-15 people. So the End has to go protect him. Then these idiots starting punching and fighting at the End, and he has to fight back, and boom, you have a brawl. Its not that difficult of a process. It can start very quickly, and end very badly.
So weve seen the Artest fight. In college football specifically, weve seen a player clothesline a fan. Weve seen fights between teams (S. Carolina and Clemson, FIU and Miami). Why would it be a big surprise if they combined? Like Im saying, it wouldnt be, and it will end badly. These are not the type of people you want to get into a fight with.
Who would everyone blame? Well, the same person they blamed in the Artest fight, the athlete (not to say Artest wasnt guilty, but he wasnt 100% guilty). Take it one step further, and say nearly the exact thing happened at a college football game. Our drunk frat boy snuck in a flask of Jim Beam, and has been pouring it into a bunch of 20 oz Cokes hes been buying at the concession stands. When his team wins, he doesnt want to waste the 2 shots of whiskey he has in his drink, and brings his drink with him. He rushes the field, drink in hand. He sees the star of the other team just 20 feet away. He says, hey, theres no security here, theres 1000 people on the field to protect me/he wont even know its me, I may even get a laugh, watch this. He throws his drink at the player. Boom, smack in the face. Now, you got a player who just lost a game and has been doused with Jim and Coke. He sees the general direction the drink came from, but it doesnt matter to him. He just punches some fucker in the face that happened to be laughing at his misfortune, (was the fan that Artest first hit the original thrower of the beer? I dont think he was). And then, we have a brawl on our hands again.
The situation is different because Artest went into the stands. Youre obviously not supposed to do that. As a professional athlete, I guess youre supposed to sit there and let fuckers hit you with beers. If you want to try an experiment, go to the bar, throw a beer on someone across the bar, and see if he puts his head down and sulks or wants to fight you. Yet, Artest, and all athletes, are expected to look the other way. I know, Artest is a bad guy, but come on.
But of course, in our football example, the fans are on the field. The athletes had no choice but to interact with them. I still say they blame the athlete. Even though hes just a 21-22 year old, has no impulse control, just lost a game, just got someone in his face, he is expected to act like a distinguished gentleman with nothing wrong. Yet, the thousands of people that just rushed the field can act like wild animals, and are even applauded for it. ESPN loves that shit. They eat it up. They love seeing the field swarmed, they think it means they just had a good game on TV, they show the blimp cam perspective, sportscenter uses it in their intro-montage, on and on and on. They love it. The more drunk, yelling idiots that get on the field, the better. If you think its easy to restrain yourself, imagine:
working for 22 years to get a promotion. You go into your boss' office. You have no reason to expect anything other than a promotion (youre the favorite), but in a huge upset, you lose (you dont get it). Youre devastated. All that hard work down the drain. This was one of your last chances to get a promotion. You say, okay, and walk out. Then, in the 100 foot walk between your boss' office and your cubical, there is a mob of all your co-workers and their friends, laughing in your face. Theyre jumping up and down, screaming at you, maybe brushing shoulders or some light shoving, and they are just totally elated that you failed. Think you can hold back?
Not even that, if I even need to make my example any more...football players just spent the last 3 hours of their lives kicking each others ass. Thats what is in your blood. Not to say you are some sort of savage that cant express yourself with words or restrain yourself at all, but your adrenaline and your endorphins are kicked in, you just ran around knocking the living shit and getting the living shit knocked out of you for three hours, and then youre supposed to act beyond cordial to people who hate you? Come on, its ridiculous.
Theres no good way to end this article. Ill just say it again, this will happen. The amount of "rushes" is increasing. We all know this. Any minor upset generates one nowadays. The more they happen, the more likely something like this is to occur. Some team's fans will rush, there will be a minor scuffle at first, it will turn out to be a full fledged brawl, it will take forever to get separated, students will have to go to the hospital, players will be suspended, and no one will ever be allowed to step on the field again.
Why do I feel like Bill O' Reilly after writing a long, anti-violence, preaching article?
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