Thou shalt not demonstrate. That’s the rule in college football. But it’s pretty subjectively enforced. How much is too much? When does enthusiasm boil over and become demonstrating?
Two times in Heidelberg’s loss to Wilmington last Saturday a Student Prince player was flagged for “demonstrating.” Each time the penalty took hard earned momentum from the home team’s sails.
Now, I’m in no way saying that those calls were wrong or had undue influence on the outcome of the game. They were consistent and the fact of the matter is Heidelberg did not make the most of the opportunities it had.
However, as I rooted for the Student Princes, it seemed that the flags were a little unnecessary. I didn’t feel that the players’ actions constituted a violation. I don’t think that I wouldn’t feel any differently about them if the players involved were Quakers instead of Student Princes.
Hats off, though to the guys who do have to make the decisions.
Division III apparently isn’t the only place where the “no demonstration” rule draws criticism when it’s used. No less a player than Miami tight end Kellen Winslow had complaints after this weekend. Winslow was flagged for demonstrating after officials apparently saw his helmet on the ground and thought he had taken it off in celebration.
Winslow claims it was pulled off during the tackle.
There is good reason for the rule. Taunting aimed directly at an opponent with finger pointing, chest pounding and/or strutting is wrong.
As far as I’m concerned, all this kneeling in the end zone and pointing at the sky after a successful play is pretty offensive.
Son, as important as it is to you, God doesn’t care who wins your football game and I resent you trying to throw your assumed sanctity in my face.
But it is not only hardworking game officials who seem to sometimes go overboard by stifling enthusiasm.
About a month ago, the University of Missouri won a football game over Nebraska. It was the first time the Tigers had beaten the Cornhuskers in 25 years.
Hundreds of fans ran onto the field and tore down the goalposts from both ends.
Professional photographer William Mathis snapped a picture of the fans and goalposts and used it to design a poster. He went through the proper channels, taking the poster to Missouri’s licensing department and getting approval.
The department sent him to the U of Mo bookstore to sell it. Soon, the poster was being sold at the bookstore and one other Columbia retailer, Tiger Spirit.
However, all of a sudden the Mizzou athletic department ordered sales of the poster stopped. They said it might “promote unruly fan behavior.”
Mathis, rightly in my opinion, said stopping sales of the poster smacks of censorship. He complained, “It’s like saying, ‘Hey, this didn’t really happen.’”
Photographs are photographs. They record moments in time, often moments in history, which, for Missouri football fans, this was. To try to control history’s record is despotic.
On a lighter note, I found a website that seems to have the answers to nearly any question you may have about how to make boomerangs. Not a lot of space left here to tell you all about it.
You can find it at http://studentorgs .utexas.edu/mother/. They describe ways to build and fly two-bladed 2” and three or four-bladed 8” boomerangs in the classroom, to boomerangs made of tongue depressors. (Good for auditoriums)
Be advised, though, that if you do it right the teacher will be able to tell who threw it by watching to see to whom it returns.