Sunday, October 15, 2006
This is NOT football
Florida International University began its football program just a few years ago, and they have already moved up to Division 1-A. Saturday night, the program played what was surely the biggest game in the short history of the program -- a game against the Miami Hurricanes.
One might expect this to be just a typical take-the-check-and-get-blown-out mismatch. FIU plays in the Sun Belt Conference along with such schools as Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State, and Florida Atlantic, which is FIU's natural rival, as the two schools are about 30 miles apart and started their programs a year apart. However, UM's campus is just 9 miles from FIU's, and the vast majority of the players on both rosters are from the local area. UM, a private institution, is far and away the more established program with a lot of local fans, but FIU has a vastly larger local alumni base, being a public university and more than twice the enrollment.
And so the stage was set for what might be a fairly spirited contest. Instead what happened was an embarrassment for both schools, as some unpleasant words turned to pushing and shoving, alleged cheap shots, and finally a bench-clearing brawl that stopped the game, led to the ejection of 13 players, and eventually spread to the stands. I'm sure there are more details than are listed in the story, and which I didn't catch (the game wasn't televised live, and I was watching another game), but one that I did see was a Miami player coming on to the field carrying his helmet and swinging at players in the melee.
As I was driving home, I caught the UM post-game show on the radio, and what I heard just infuriated me. The announcers were bent on blaming everyone not associated with Miami -- the FIU players, the officials, etc. -- while defending even the Hurricanes who left the bench, saying that they would want guys like that who will stand by their teammates.
Worst of all, though, they said that "it's part of the game," because players are caught up in the heat of the moment.
BULL.
If bench-clearing brawls were part of the game, it would happen nearly every week, especially in big rivalries. This was as ugly a brawl as I have ever seen in a football game, and I don't remember EVER seeing anything like this when Miami plays Florida State, Texas plays Oklahoma, Florida plays Georgia, Notre Dame plays USC, or Ohio State plays Michigan, and these are as fierce rivalries as you will find in college football. What's more, I don't care who started it or what was said, you don't come running in from the bench in the heat of the moment. The guy with the helmet should be dismissed from the team, and I wouldn't be shocked if criminal charges were brought for that part of the fight.
Both coaches seem to agree with me, as they have both expressed their outrage and promised to punish their players who took part, although it seems that there wouldn't be too many players left.
During halftime of the game I was watching, Lou Holtz said that the coaches had lost control of the players, and that the players involved had no respect for the game, for their coaches, or for their schools. Lou knows what he's talking about, too -- you may recall that in his final game as a coach, his South Carolina team was involved in a similar fight at the end of their game against Clemson. Holtz also said that was the only such fight any of his teams had been involved in during his long coaching career, so I guess he somehow managed to almost completely avoid that particular "part of the game."
Oh, yeah, and the two teams are scheduled to meet again next October, although it seems that the schools may want to consider cancelling.
One might expect this to be just a typical take-the-check-and-get-blown-out mismatch. FIU plays in the Sun Belt Conference along with such schools as Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State, and Florida Atlantic, which is FIU's natural rival, as the two schools are about 30 miles apart and started their programs a year apart. However, UM's campus is just 9 miles from FIU's, and the vast majority of the players on both rosters are from the local area. UM, a private institution, is far and away the more established program with a lot of local fans, but FIU has a vastly larger local alumni base, being a public university and more than twice the enrollment.
And so the stage was set for what might be a fairly spirited contest. Instead what happened was an embarrassment for both schools, as some unpleasant words turned to pushing and shoving, alleged cheap shots, and finally a bench-clearing brawl that stopped the game, led to the ejection of 13 players, and eventually spread to the stands. I'm sure there are more details than are listed in the story, and which I didn't catch (the game wasn't televised live, and I was watching another game), but one that I did see was a Miami player coming on to the field carrying his helmet and swinging at players in the melee.
As I was driving home, I caught the UM post-game show on the radio, and what I heard just infuriated me. The announcers were bent on blaming everyone not associated with Miami -- the FIU players, the officials, etc. -- while defending even the Hurricanes who left the bench, saying that they would want guys like that who will stand by their teammates.
Worst of all, though, they said that "it's part of the game," because players are caught up in the heat of the moment.
BULL.
If bench-clearing brawls were part of the game, it would happen nearly every week, especially in big rivalries. This was as ugly a brawl as I have ever seen in a football game, and I don't remember EVER seeing anything like this when Miami plays Florida State, Texas plays Oklahoma, Florida plays Georgia, Notre Dame plays USC, or Ohio State plays Michigan, and these are as fierce rivalries as you will find in college football. What's more, I don't care who started it or what was said, you don't come running in from the bench in the heat of the moment. The guy with the helmet should be dismissed from the team, and I wouldn't be shocked if criminal charges were brought for that part of the fight.
Both coaches seem to agree with me, as they have both expressed their outrage and promised to punish their players who took part, although it seems that there wouldn't be too many players left.
During halftime of the game I was watching, Lou Holtz said that the coaches had lost control of the players, and that the players involved had no respect for the game, for their coaches, or for their schools. Lou knows what he's talking about, too -- you may recall that in his final game as a coach, his South Carolina team was involved in a similar fight at the end of their game against Clemson. Holtz also said that was the only such fight any of his teams had been involved in during his long coaching career, so I guess he somehow managed to almost completely avoid that particular "part of the game."
Oh, yeah, and the two teams are scheduled to meet again next October, although it seems that the schools may want to consider cancelling.
