Football Brawls

Comments

# Scott said on October 15, 2006 9:16 PM:

Honestly, when a fight this big breaks out, the game should end and BOTH teams go home with a loss. No tolerance for that kind of behavior in college ball.

# William said on October 15, 2006 10:40 PM:

Scott - part of me, my junvenile Beavis alter-ego thinks that there's way too much ado over nothing and that they should just let it go. On the other hand, my adult side agrees with you in total, this sort of stuff has no place in sports and while some scuffling is inevitable, this can't be ignored.  One of my  best friend from high school went to the University of Tulsa to play ball.  His room mate was Gus Frerotte who was QB, my friend Phil Nitowski was tight end.  They were Division I and were a pretty good team but they obviously weren't a dynasty. I remember them both telling me about how much different college ball was.  I think we all had friends in college that used to get drunk and make all sorts of claims about how great they were in high school.  You know, the types that were 5'9 and a chubby 265 but claimed that Nebraska and Notre dame were looking at them but right before they got the offer for a full ride, they had a knee injury and that was the end of it.  I ran into quite a few of these guys. Anyway, whenever I'd go out with Phil and Gus, there would always be a few of these types coming up to them and talking football.  And I remember they both would tell me how much different college ball was.  even the scrubs were faster, stronger , could jump higher and hit a lot harder.  The whole front line could bench 350+ as opposed to high school where one or two guys could but 1/2 the team benced 350 albeit in their home gym or at some time when no one saw it.

They really made the case that in college ball, the caliber of athletes was a lot higher. everyone knows that but they'd make the point that it was a lot more pronounced then they ever realized. In some cases you'd have 220lb guys that were as strong as bulls that could run 4.4 40s or something close to it - and getting hit by that my speed and strength at that velocity was brutal - especially for Gus who was the QB.  

Tulsa played Miami once and they both were amazed at the caliber of player they had. Even though they were division I players, they said that the guys at Miami were just amazingly fast and amazingly strong.  that overall, these people were just amazing.  When they hit you, 'it really really hurt'.  The reason i mention all of this is to substantiate your point and negate my Beavis tendencies.  When you have people this strong, they can seriously damage other people. Pad can protect you but only so much, after all even with pads there are still many people injured every season.  But you take people this strong and powerful and put weapons like helmets in their hands, you could easily have deadly force or enough to cause serious damage to people.  If fights aren't reigned in then you are tacitly encouraging it.  I mean in high school you'd have to do a bunch of conditioning if you did something like fight, but at the college level, training is everything to them so it's not a real punishment. Sure it might suck while it's happening, but these guys are pretty tough on themselves anyway and it's easy for them to look at the extra training as something that's just making them a better player.  they can also think of it as a macho issue and just tought it out.  That's the case with just a one on one fight. But when you have this many people involved, group dynamics comes into play. Guys that might otherwise not fight might jump into it b/c personna is a big deal in sports and making a name for yourself is important. And no one wants to look like  a coward or have people think he won't stand up for his boys.  

So yes, everyone was fortunate it wasn't a lot worse.  I personally think we can be a little sissified with some of the stuff we punish (like celebrating in the end zones) and that this is after all sports.  I think a little taunting, trash talking and the like is acceptable and isn't all that big of a deal. I differ from many in this respect b/c I know a lot of people who are really bothered by 'poor sportsmanship' which they define to include trash talking and the like -however when you have people at this level engaging in fights, I have to agree that a punishment that actually hurts is in order. Otherwise it just tends to escalate and other people get the idea that they can handle a smack to the ego on the scoreboard by smackign the other guys ego with a punch. And invariably you come across the nuts who think it's ok to target and injure the other teams critical players.  yes, it's not necessarily going to happen but it does set the tone for it to so as much as I hate to see anything go against my boys, I'm afraid you're right on with this one - they deserve to have the hammer dropped on this one.