Arclight
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 23, 2005
- Messages
- 4,259
- Likes
- 858
Dubois: Tigers Lose More Than A Game After Bus Incident
By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter
Enough already. Somebody make it stop, please.
Groups of people outside Tiger Stadium late Monday afternoon greeted University of Tennessee buses by throwing beer bottles and banging on windows, cracking three of them, LSU Police confirmed. You can assume those were not Vanderbilt fans causing trouble.
LSU fans get defensive when the rest of the Southeastern Conference labels them the worst fans in the SEC. Stories like this one make it hard to defend them.
Let's be clear: The actions of a misguided few can affect the reputation of the many. No one is justified in thinking all LSU fans act that way, but many will draw generalities because of this latest stain upon Tigertown.
And for what? A football game? An inferiority complex that tries to put on the uniform of a superiority complex? A need to create conflict and drama where they don't exist? I'm at a loss to explain it.
What I planned to write today was a tribute to the thousands of fans who found a way to get to Tiger Stadium despite the many obstacles created by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more cynical bunch than those of us in the news media, and yet, there I was during pregame, the sounds of New Orleans in the air, the Golden Band from Tigerland paying homage to a city and a spirit that won't die, and I found myself glad colleagues weren't looking my way. Why?
Tears had never welled up in my eyes at a sporting event, not in nearly 44 years of playing, watching and describing games.
Yet, I was an emotional mess just before kickoff because of the way my home state responded to adversity in the last month. I could not imagine what the players were going through and still having to play a game.
Had I known LSU fans had already frightened Tennessee personnel and damaged their bus a few hours before, I am sure I would have wept aloud, and for totally different reasons.
The uplifting, giving, caring side of the LSU fan base was celebrated in newspapers and broadcast news reports coast to coast -- worldwide, even -- after LSU became an epicenter for evacuation and medical assistance after Katrina. The praise was well deserved.
Can all that goodwill go away because of the actions of a few? I hope not, but I'm sure the folks in Tennessee don't have a warm fuzzy feeling about LSU now.
Neither might readers of USA Today, which reported the bus incident in Tuesday's editions.
The dark side of fandom began to show itself before the Arizona State game. Fueled in part by talk show hosts who didn't let the facts get in the way of their rants, some LSU fans believed the suggestion that Arizona State coerced LSU into playing a Sept. 10 home game in Tempe, Ariz.
Forget that Arizona State didn't make a dime off the game. Never mind that nobody at LSU tried to argue that Arizona State took advantage of a disaster.
You can't take out your anger on a hurricane, but you can e-mail an athletic director, a coach or a reporter. You can get on an Internet message board and feed the mob mentality, adding legitimacy to rumor, innuendo and irresponsible commentary. And many did.
You didn't read about that here because, after the worst natural disaster in our history, we were focused more on the positives that came out of LSU's 35-31 victory over Arizona State, not the negatives of the vocal few.
Fourteen e-mails found their way into this mailbox after that game, and all 14 were highly critical of LSU's defense. Most called for the firing of coach Les Miles and defensive coordinator Bo Pelini.
The number of e-mails that applauded an emotional, dramatic victory under extraordinary circumstances? Zero.
Who would have thought Catastrophe Syndrome would be a two-touchdown favorite over pride and relief, especially after a legitimate catastrophe?
But you didn't read about that here. Maybe I was in denial about some fans who, in the context of real life-and-death drama, seemed to have a need to create some about a game.
Maybe I didn't want to risk painting an entire fan base with broad brushstrokes because of the vocal minority.
That's what many will do now that they know about the fans who swarmed the Tennessee buses in anger Monday. That's sad, but true.
If there were as much anger about our leaders' failures in a time of crisis as there was about a series of football games, there would be no need for this column.
When did football become life and death, and life and death become a "distraction" for a football team? Why bang on Tennessee's bus?
The Vols did nothing to deserve such treatment. They balked at playing here Saturday, as most would have. They asked for a daytime kickoff, common in most of college football, to help them attend the game.
They didn't try to force it, contrary to still more irresponsible reporting.
When they hesitated to fly into Louisiana while a hurricane was still ravaging the Gulf Coast, they were simply looking out for their own. Anyone who thinks LSU officials and fans wouldn't have had the same concerns had the situation been reversed is in deep denial.
Sports rivalries can be fun. Heck, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill used to rip each other politically, then get together after hours and enjoy each other's company.
Why can't all SEC fans do the same? Most do, but the few who insist upon inventing reasons to hate each other are ruining it for everybody else.
Not to mention perpetuating stereotypes about the fans of their favorite team.
Enough already. Please.
By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter
Enough already. Somebody make it stop, please.
Groups of people outside Tiger Stadium late Monday afternoon greeted University of Tennessee buses by throwing beer bottles and banging on windows, cracking three of them, LSU Police confirmed. You can assume those were not Vanderbilt fans causing trouble.
LSU fans get defensive when the rest of the Southeastern Conference labels them the worst fans in the SEC. Stories like this one make it hard to defend them.
Let's be clear: The actions of a misguided few can affect the reputation of the many. No one is justified in thinking all LSU fans act that way, but many will draw generalities because of this latest stain upon Tigertown.
And for what? A football game? An inferiority complex that tries to put on the uniform of a superiority complex? A need to create conflict and drama where they don't exist? I'm at a loss to explain it.
What I planned to write today was a tribute to the thousands of fans who found a way to get to Tiger Stadium despite the many obstacles created by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more cynical bunch than those of us in the news media, and yet, there I was during pregame, the sounds of New Orleans in the air, the Golden Band from Tigerland paying homage to a city and a spirit that won't die, and I found myself glad colleagues weren't looking my way. Why?
Tears had never welled up in my eyes at a sporting event, not in nearly 44 years of playing, watching and describing games.
Yet, I was an emotional mess just before kickoff because of the way my home state responded to adversity in the last month. I could not imagine what the players were going through and still having to play a game.
Had I known LSU fans had already frightened Tennessee personnel and damaged their bus a few hours before, I am sure I would have wept aloud, and for totally different reasons.
The uplifting, giving, caring side of the LSU fan base was celebrated in newspapers and broadcast news reports coast to coast -- worldwide, even -- after LSU became an epicenter for evacuation and medical assistance after Katrina. The praise was well deserved.
Can all that goodwill go away because of the actions of a few? I hope not, but I'm sure the folks in Tennessee don't have a warm fuzzy feeling about LSU now.
Neither might readers of USA Today, which reported the bus incident in Tuesday's editions.
The dark side of fandom began to show itself before the Arizona State game. Fueled in part by talk show hosts who didn't let the facts get in the way of their rants, some LSU fans believed the suggestion that Arizona State coerced LSU into playing a Sept. 10 home game in Tempe, Ariz.
Forget that Arizona State didn't make a dime off the game. Never mind that nobody at LSU tried to argue that Arizona State took advantage of a disaster.
You can't take out your anger on a hurricane, but you can e-mail an athletic director, a coach or a reporter. You can get on an Internet message board and feed the mob mentality, adding legitimacy to rumor, innuendo and irresponsible commentary. And many did.
You didn't read about that here because, after the worst natural disaster in our history, we were focused more on the positives that came out of LSU's 35-31 victory over Arizona State, not the negatives of the vocal few.
Fourteen e-mails found their way into this mailbox after that game, and all 14 were highly critical of LSU's defense. Most called for the firing of coach Les Miles and defensive coordinator Bo Pelini.
The number of e-mails that applauded an emotional, dramatic victory under extraordinary circumstances? Zero.
Who would have thought Catastrophe Syndrome would be a two-touchdown favorite over pride and relief, especially after a legitimate catastrophe?
But you didn't read about that here. Maybe I was in denial about some fans who, in the context of real life-and-death drama, seemed to have a need to create some about a game.
Maybe I didn't want to risk painting an entire fan base with broad brushstrokes because of the vocal minority.
That's what many will do now that they know about the fans who swarmed the Tennessee buses in anger Monday. That's sad, but true.
If there were as much anger about our leaders' failures in a time of crisis as there was about a series of football games, there would be no need for this column.
When did football become life and death, and life and death become a "distraction" for a football team? Why bang on Tennessee's bus?
The Vols did nothing to deserve such treatment. They balked at playing here Saturday, as most would have. They asked for a daytime kickoff, common in most of college football, to help them attend the game.
They didn't try to force it, contrary to still more irresponsible reporting.
When they hesitated to fly into Louisiana while a hurricane was still ravaging the Gulf Coast, they were simply looking out for their own. Anyone who thinks LSU officials and fans wouldn't have had the same concerns had the situation been reversed is in deep denial.
Sports rivalries can be fun. Heck, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill used to rip each other politically, then get together after hours and enjoy each other's company.
Why can't all SEC fans do the same? Most do, but the few who insist upon inventing reasons to hate each other are ruining it for everybody else.
Not to mention perpetuating stereotypes about the fans of their favorite team.
Enough already. Please.
