2007 Navy vs. Rutgers

GreatAmerican
Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:18:17 +0000

Taunting is wrong, no matter who the opponent is; Rutgers, be nice (Home News Tribune)

Taunting is wrong, no matter who the opponent is; Rutgers, be nice
Home News Tribune Online 09/13/07

One year after the Rutgers football program was the feel-great story of the
autumn, the behavior of some Rutgers’ football fans was so frightful Friday
that the story was featured on the Drudge Report. That can’t be good.

The story was that a few students taunted the visitors from Navy with
obscene chants. I wouldn’t know. Our seats are in a section where grizzled
fans remain puzzled why Lehigh and Colgate are no longer on the schedule,
and still can’t get used to this thing called the two-point conversion.

What made it so bad, the story goes, was because the opponent was Navy, and
don’t you know someday soon Navy’s linebackers will be fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan. I’m figuring the Navy players are somewhat offended ‹ not by
the chants, but the suggestion they’re feelings somehow matter more than
players from West Virginia and Syracuse.

According to this way of thinking, it’s bad to bad-mouth sailors headed for
the Persian Gulf, but not quite as bad to taunt West Virginia’s
student-athletes who someday will be selling Remingtons at Bass Pro Shops or
Syracuse grads who hope to manage the night shift at Panera’s.

If Navy’s players can’t take it now, how are they going to react when the
enemy is not lobbing obscene taunts, but heat-seeking missiles? You know
what they’ll call the Rutgers-Navy game in 2007? The good old days.

People, it’s wrong and crude, no matter who the opponent. It’s also another
signal that our culture ‹ especially our youth culture ‹ is so crude. The
kids get some of their cues, by the way, from adults making movies and
sitcoms who greenlight crude programming. Have you listened to the kids’
music, lately?

Rutgers was properly embarrassed by the behavior, with university President
Richard L. McCormick writing a letter of apology to his equivalent at the
Naval Academy, Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler.

But it’s not just Rutgers. In a story in the Rutgers Daily Targum, one
student explained, “My dad’s a professor at Bates College in Maine, and the
same stuff happens there, I mean, it’s college.”

The gold standard of creative behavior at sporting events is the work of the
Cameron Crazies at Duke University basketball games. Apparently the
university is so pleased with their behavior they give the students the best
seats, bumping big donors to the rear of Cameron Indoor Stadium, as if
students are more important than big donors.

ESPN.com listed 10 great Crazies’ moments.

No. 5. The game after North Carolina’s Steve Hale suffered a punctured lung,
the compassionate cry was “In-Hale, Ex-Hale.” Rumor has it that even Hale
couldn’t resist smiling.

No. 1. The ultimate in catnip over the years has been the unfortunate
visitor fresh off a confrontation with the legal system. Former Duke player,
now an ESPN personality, Jay Bilas, recalled how Adrian Branch of Maryland
had some problem off court. Bilas recalled, "As he was getting ready to
shoot a free throw, Duke students behind the basket all stood up and yelled,
“Freeze! Police!’ Even the other guys on his team had to laugh.”

The least original taunt is any use of the F-word.

You’re better than that, Rutgers.

Rick Malwitz’s column appears Sundays and Thursdays. His Tuesday Musings
blog appears at www.thnt.com. Rmalwitz@thnt.com, (732) 565-7291.