Five Man Electrical Band - Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs.
Any more sign songs?
Michigan Football out to have a song thanking two former ball boys for figuring out that a Northwestern coach was stealing signs (which is legal) in a 1997 game. Don’t believe me? Read.
Yikes.
I can’t decide what to laugh at. The fact that it was two ball boys who figured out what was going on or that they had to tell the coaches twice that it was happening? Perhaps it’s the fact that the Northwestern coach figured out whether a run play or pass play was coming based simply on where the center’s hands were placed in his stance? Even more so humorous that the signal into the NW defense was as simple as a finger towards the ground (run) or to the sky (pass)?
Funniest thing is this: somehow Michigan State’s plays, according to this coach, were easier to read. HOW?!? What did they do, hold up a sign that indicated what they were doing?
No wonder Tressel prefers the quarterback run to the sideline to take plays. Sweater vest equates to smart.
Here is my recommendation and I hope fans of all schools will use it. Stop using the whole number of arrests by a football program as some sort of knock on your rivals program. For example to the buffoon Michigan fan who on the freep.com insinuated that as soon as Jim Tressel starts graduating as many players as he has arrested he can be taken seriously. Off the top of my head in just the last season alone 3 schools in the Big Ten have had more players arrested than Ohio State has in the last several. In 2007 Ohio State had one player arrested, Antonio Henton for solicitation. Those other three schools?
Penn State - who had six players arrested regarding THE SAME INCIDENT!!
Michigan State- who had three players arrested regarding THE SAME INCIDENT!!
Michigan - who had two players arrested for assualt as well as a handful of other arrests.
Seriously, everyone stop with that crack back. It just doesn’t apply anymore. There are a plethora of schools facing legal issues in and out of the Big Ten. These are kids (supposed amateurs) playing a sport we love to follow. Can we not all harken back to when we were 17-23 years old and recall some of the shenanigans we got ourselves into?
Say what you will about the raucous at Michigan State this past weekend; unless you’re stating that this is a complete embarrassment you’re dead wrong and potentially a complete buffoon. Scratch that, you are a complete buffoon. As a former Michigan State student myself I am beyond ashamed.
The riot this past weekend does not find its roots in any celebration of athletic success nor does it find its roots in celebration of academic success. Something tells me these folks weren’t assembled to celebrate last semesters selection to Dean’s List. Just a hunch. No this riot finds its roots in the belief that an event that was banned in the City of East Lansing in 1987 should be reincarnated. Hey! If it was a bad idea 21 years ago and there were serious issues then what in the world makes you think it is a good idea now?!? To give you an idea of how bad it truly was here is a video depicting the events of this past weekend’s melee (note: vulgar language and acts of violence are prevalent in this video):
Since when does the assemblage of 3,000 to 4,000 students, a majority of whom are probably more than inebriated, make sense in a non-controlled environment? It’s not like this is the first time there have been issues in the Cedar Village area after all; recent memory alone should serve notice to that. The following information was taken from a Wikipedia entry dedicated to MSU riots
September 6, 1997: 500 partygoers in the Gunson Street neighborhood confronted police, throwing bottles and damaging police vehicles.
May 1, 1998: An estimated 3,000 students protesting the ban on alcohol at Munn Field tailgate parties resulted in police firing tear gas at the crowd.
March 27, 1999: Following a loss by MSU’s basketball team to Duke in the NCAA Final Four, thousands of students and non-students (estimates range from 5,000 - 10,000 people) gathered around the Grand River Ave. area of East Lansing. Eventually this mass of people rioted; breaking windows, overturning cars, and starting bonfires in the streets. Local police called in reinforcements from as far away as Howell, MI to help quell the unrest and utilized tear gas and riot gear to control the crowds. By the time local law enforcement regained control, over $150,000 in damage had been done to the campus and surrounding city.
April 2, 2005: An estimated 2,000 students and non-students took to the streets immediately following the men’s basketball team’s loss to UNC in the final four, causing an estimated $8,275 in damage to the city of East Lansing and costing area law enforcement an estimated $190,389 in expenses. The April 2 event was marked by accusations of police abuse and mismanagement. Though large segments of the disturbance were documented on video, no specific acts of violence were seen until after tear gas was launched at the students.
The issue here seems to be that there is a culture of rioting at MSU. It has been said that some of those present at the melee were chanting, ‘tear gas us, tear gas us’ as if this was some rite of passage. That by somehow being tear gassed in a riot on Cedar St. is some sort of throwback to the past.
It is time for Michigan State University, the City of East Lansing, students, and the citizenry to find the means to ensure this rioting ceases completely. I am not overwhelmingly concerned with what dialogue needs to take place just that it does take place. Ohio State took significant actions following the riots of 2002 after the football Buckeyes defeated Michigan to head to the BCS Championship Game. I haven’t heard of couch burning in Morgantown for some time either.
The fact of the matter is this - in a little more than 10 years there have been 5 significant disturbances in East Lansing. While it might be said that the revelers for the most part are not Michigan State students this certainly doesn’t excuse the behavior of those who do call themselves Spartans and find themselves amongst the chaos. One Spartan being arrested during these types of disturbances is one too many and all involved must take the action necessary to ensure that if there is a next time that the number of arrests of MSU students equals zero.
