Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 18 hours or so, you’ve already seen the disgrace that was Tulsa and Mississippi State fighting on the field after the Armed Forces Bowl.
From pre-game to post-game these two teams looked more like street gangs than football teams representing institutions of higher learning. Both of their head coaches looked more like gang lieutenants than football coaches while being interviewed about this foolishness after the smoke cleared.
Mike Leach looked into a camera and literally had nothing to say about his players fighting like they were somewhere in the parking lot of a night club in ANY HOOD, USA regardless of who started it.
Here was his response, “It’s dumb. The root of it’s dumb, no matter what the root of it is. The root of it’s dumb and the continuation of it’s dumb. I would have that solidly in the category of dumb. Now where the dumb started, I’m not entirely sure.”
All he had to say was that it was dumb. Not that it’s embarrassing that after a hard fought game we marred our effort fighting like some thugs in the street and I’ll be sure to hold our players accountable. None of that. These are “student-athletes” right? These are guys that represent a major state university right?
Oh, it gets worse! Tulsa’s head coach Philip Montgomery’s response was even more disturbing. When they asked him about the fight and he broke it down like an O.G. in the hood looking for more.
“The one thing I’ll say is our program, our guys, we’re a team that is going to stand up for each other and we’re going to battle. We talked about faith, family, football, and family is going to take care of family. We’re a team that has battled all year long. We battled again today, and from that standpoint, our guys are going to continue to protect each other and go from there.”
In other words, Montgomery said that his team is “Bout it, Bout it.” Throw out of the window that we’re representing the University of Tulsa. Throw out the fact that they’re supposed to be teaching these young men how to be responsible adults. Throw out that these young men are getting their educations paid for and are being given the opportunity to play a sport that they love. Sure, I totally get that the university is using everyone of them but like the old playas used to say. Use them before they pimp you. Get your degree that they can’t ever take away from you.
No!! Their head coach just told them that a street fight after the game was appropriate as long as you’re fighting next to your brother. Regardless of whether it was wrong or not. As long as there’s a fight you need to be in it.
And let’s not let some of these parents off the hook either. This is the type of foolishness that occurs when a kid isn’t afraid of anyone at home. When there’s someone at home that a kid respects enough not to embarrass. They aren’t running out onto the field fighting on national television.
When there’s a Big Momma, Daddy, Uncle, big brother, extended family that have held them accountable throughout their lives. This doesn’t happen. Why? Because the kid that understands right from wrong doesn’t participate in the foolishness. A kid that knows his old man or mother is going to be standing there waiting to get in his butt when he walks out of that locker room. He isn’t on the field stumping people in the back with cleats on or throwing hands. He just isn’t playa.
Just because your boy walked into the store and stole something doesn’t mean you should have his back. Just because some idiot starts a fight in the middle of the field doesn’t mean that you need to fight with him. It means that you need to pull his dumb butt out of the foolishness or let him get his butt whooped.
At the end of the day you’re there to get an education and somehow you let your boy jeopardize that. What happens if they start pulling scholarships and yours is one of them? Stop me when I start lyin’!