Has anyone else seen this? I put 'scuffle' in the title, but I don't think that's the correct word. The word 'assault' is used too frequently, but that's what this is - in my opinion.
I'm going to wait until more video footage is released, but if you've seen the video then the MSU players who seemed to incite this should at a minimum be thrown off the team. It looks bad on the surface, and it gets worse when you find out that Ja'Den McBurrows, the player in the video, was recovering from a torn ACL and went to the locker room to change before coming back out to celebrate with his team.
Relevant Link(s):
- Here's the first video on Twitter that shows a singular angle of the assault, the one that everyone jumped in on, myself included. It's not very clear what happened at the beginning, so argument could be made that he was 'inciting' it. I'll tackle that later.
- Here's another video of them doing it to another guy, with a little more room for seeing what happened before the thing went down. Stay classy, MSU - two in a row!
- Here's a good ESPN article that came out this morning that broke it down pretty well, worth the read.
- Here's MSU's third-rate coach first denying the incident, then his cookie-cutter statement released afterward that his PR team wrote for him. Fuck this guy, I won't lie.
- Here's Harbaugh's presser response, compare it to Tucker's. I'm no fan of Jim, but he seemed to actually give a shit about the thing that happened, rather than Tucker just playing it off like a) it didn't happen, and b) who the fuck cares.
Those who don't follow CFB may not give a shit about this, which is cool. I have many thoughts, and while the logical part of me wants to just blame MSU outright, I understand that media in general is one-sided and I'm not gonna pretend that McBurrows wasn't looking for trouble, either. The argument can be made that he was shit talking and he shouldn't have been right there, but it's fucking football. You sign up for shit-talking, you don't sign up for getting jumped 10v1. It's disgraceful.
It seems that a lot of football players in particular have some sort of leeway when it comes to stuff like this on the field, and it's an interesting liability point to bring up. As long as that quarter clock is ticking, the waivers and fees negotiated by the stadium representatives, respective sports teams and athletic associations, and the NCAA's governing body protects players from assault charges and/or general 'roughness' from a criminal POV, but that ends once the game is over. While this was still on Michigan Football's grounds, I highly doubt that they'll be free of ANY legal action, but we'll see how it goes. You never know - last month, Davante Adams shoved a camera worker down during an ending of an NFL game and he ended up getting a misdemeanor charge filed.
Curious to know your guys thoughts, if any. I know we have some CFB fans on here, and I also know that it's a rough game with rough shit. Rough shit or not, doesn't entitle your team to jump a dude with a torn ACL, I don't fuckin' care what he said to you. It's words, don't respond with fists.
That's all. Fuck Mel Tucker (for more reasons than just his response to this), and fuck Itayvion Brown (#19 who appeared to start both skirmishes). Fun fact, Brown was let go from his prior university for his off-field conduct... who would have thought that would have ended poorly? I, for one, and shocked.
Side note: I'm pretty sure UofM is one of the only Power-5 teams that only has one tunnel for both home and opposing teams. I guarantee you that tunnel has seen some shit, especially with how high emotions are for these games. It's an interesting story to read. Hoping McBurrows and the other unnamed player recover soon.
As you touched on, I think there's a difference between these things happening on the field versus off the field. On the field, during the game, there's an accepted level of potential violence - whether a scuffle, fight after the play, etc. While not ideal, these things are assumed to happen given the physical nature of football, trash talking, etc. For example, in hockey, they let players fist fight 1v1 in the middle of the hockey rink before sitting out. With the MSU-UM fight, once the game ends and the players leave the field, any violence should be treated as if it happened anywhere else off the field.
Nobody’s at a nontarget…
Hahahah, VT graduate checking in here! ;)
It's disgusting.
They should absolutely face disciplinary action from the team, but that seems uncertain given Mel Tucker's complete absence of leadership on the topic so far. Maybe if there's enough external pressure from Michigan, the conference, and the broader world of the sport, it can happen. If the team won't, the conference or NCAA should.
If law enforcement can muster enough evidence, there should be criminal charges as well. The guy swinging a helmet? That's nuts, you can profoundly harm someone. Look at what the league did to Myles Garrett for the Mason Rudolph incident. How fundamentally stupid this was. You're all wearing identifying numbers and names.
James Franklin (Penn State) actually called this the other week. You're accurate to point out how stupid it is to have a single tunnel for both locker rooms. He said that it almost got this bad during their game, and that the conference needs to step in to enforce a delay between the two teams using the tunnel.
I'm a huge fan of the game at this level (actually prefer it to the league). This is an embarrassment to these young men and they should face repercussions.
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