Russell Athletic Brawl

As if college football wasn't insane enough with its money grabbing disorganization and exploitation of student athletes, we have yet another example to remind us of the absurdity of giving any credence to collegiate athletics.

Did you happen to read the stories surrounding the Russell Athletic Bowl between Miami and West Virginia?  Regardless, let me answer some questions you might have.

First and foremost, yes...the Russell Athletic Bowl is a thing.

It's as useful as the ficticious PapaJohns.com Bowl about which Carl sings during his rendition of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force holiday album, "Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas."  The lyrics properly describe the onslaught of each of these bowl games and how they are never competitive or worthy of our viewership:  "Florida State leads by 28...so why is Rutgers attempting a field goal?  It's 4th an 17!  You gotta go for it, then you get the on-side kick!"

These bowl games that the FBS division of the NCAA provide us multiply each year.  If you're not familiar with sports and need an analogy of what this is like, this is the equivalent of Disney acquiring LucasFilm and churning out a new Star Wars film each year.  Everybody and their mother new that the canon of Star Wars was just fine how it was, but the chance to make more money with a new trilogy and anthology films was too tempting.

Secondly, yes...I am a nerd.

Okay, back to the topic on hand.

Prior to the Russell Athletic Bowl, there was a children's charity event that hosted both teams.  Unfortunately, members of both teams began to get chippy with each other, culminating with a threat to put a player's draft stock in jeopardy, inferring intentional injury on the field during the game.  It never dawned on those present to consider the fact that the event was meant to be entertainment for children for charitable purposes.  It never occurred to them that the purpose of the event was bigger than football.  It just doesn't enter the minds of these athletes and their adult superiors that they are the priviledged ones who have the opportunity to do things like play sports with the potential future of continuing at the professional level.

During the game, another incident occurred in one of the bathrooms at the stadium.  A fan of each team got into a heated argument.  The West Virginia fan, who, and this is not a joke, only has one leg, threated to urinate on the Miami fan, which resulted in the Miami fan punching the West Virginia fan in the face.  A chase ensued between the two, followed by the one-legged West Virginia fan screaming at the Miami fan about how he, and I'm paraphrasing, used to have sexual relations with similar people while in prison.

Wow.  Anybody else need another beer?

If you're looking for the full description, just search for it...the search results will give you everything you need.

I sound like a broken record when I analyze these events because they are becoming more and more frequent and the solution is the same simple answer.  How many more of these things do we need to report and expose as ugly marks on our society?  What else needs to be done to get people to grow up and respect each other, regardless of their team/fan association?

This is where I would offer the usual solutions to these problems, so use your imagination to figure out what goes here and what you can do to prevent these incidents from occurring in the future.  Here's a hint:  the solution is obvious.