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February 6, 2015

And Here We Have The Punchers

-- BYU fights Memphis and people have things to say about it


Well that BYU-Memphis game had everything.  Multiple lead changes. Touchdowns at will. A coach attempting to ice an extra point.  Defensive highlights.  A scrambling giraffe.  Referee botch-jobs.  Fourth-quarter heroics. Overtime times two.  A 55-yard field goal that might have been good from 70.  A game-winning touchdown heave that was one shoulder-pad away from completion, not to mention a dugout clearing brouhaha,11. Which was all too perfect considering the baseball stadium backdrop. speaking of which ...



Well that brawl had everything.  A 4-on-1 mugging.  A cheapshot from nowhere. Coaches in the fray.  One guy swinging a helmet.  Another guy getting stomped on.  Bloody jerseys.  And of course the best part of any sporting fracas, the self-righteous commentators who come out of the woodwork to talk about how ugly and embarrassing it all was.

Let me see if I understand this.  We're fine with watching 18 to 24 year-old-kids try to maim each other every Saturday.  We're fine with our favorite team leaving the opposing team beaten and bruised and roughed up so long as it happens during the course of a defined 60-minute period.  We have no problem if these kids collide so viciously that they incur concussions and end up with brain damage and life-long debilitating effects. We're ok with seeing kids get broken or paralyzed, carted off of the field because, hey, sometimes that happens.

Not only are we ok with all this, we cheer for this, we celebrate this, we wish for this.  We want to see our players fiery, tough, willing to stand up for one another. We love nastiness.  We love big hits. If the other team's player is knocked out of the game, if one of our players is sidelined, if someone dies, it's just the cost of doing business.

But if a player punches someone ... "WHOA!! Hold the phone! This is violence beyond my ability to tolerate! Who are these animals? How dare they disgrace the game of football! How could they act this way? This makes me sick!"

People are weird.

Tejon Koroma is not.  He is a freshman all-american.  He is BYU's best lineman in years.  He got gang-busted by four guys and seemingly took no damage. Tejon Koroma is a boss.

1 comment:

  1. Great Job, Spencer. Great point. This was a Jalopy-free post.

    ReplyDelete