We may have just witnessed the
birth of a rivalry. On paper, UCF and UH both came into this match up hungry
for a conference championship and earning each program’s first BCS bowl berth
at the end of the American’s status as an AQ conference, looking to garner some
national respect and get some attention to the dream years we’ve both been
having. What we also witnessed on Saturday was one of the most egregious
displays of disrespect by a visiting team in my (albeit brief) time watching
UCF football. For a visiting team to come into our house, be taunting our
players and fans the way they were, and play the way they were is
reprehensible. The things they did that I take issue with are common in
football games; injuries, late hits, taunting, trash talk, unnecessarily
aggressive play, it all happens. However, all these things happening in the
span of one game leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the other team.
Regarding the Targeting play, I can’t
begrudge the Houston defender for making the hit. Decisions have to be made
fast and sometimes injuries will be the result, that’s the nature of the game. The
Houston defender got flagged for targeting and was ejected, no fault there. There
IS a problem when he tries to return the sideline after taking off his pads and
starts antagonizing the home crowd as the whole stadium began to boo him until
the officials rushed him back into the locker room. His motives for returning
to that hostile environment are up for debate but at the very least, it shows a
clear lack of judgment to think it’s a good idea to return to the field after
being ejected and injuring one of the home team’s players.
When you’re a visiting team,
there’s a certain degree of etiquette and common courtesy expected of you.
That’s not to say you can’t celebrate making good plays or are expected to be
congratulating the opposing team when they do as well, but just be professional
and have common courtesy. It rubbed me the wrong way how the Houston team,
excluding a tiny minority, didn’t have the common decency to remove their
helmets and take a knee while the injured player was still lying on the field;
a gesture of respect as simple as removing one’s hat during the national
anthem. There are some people making issue with the Cougars kneeling in prayer
in front of the student section or having a little dance before every kickoff
but those are just traditions of the game they adhere to (yet they wouldn’t do
the tradition of taking a knee out of respect for an injured player?). As I
said before, taunting will happen and I believe trash talk is a part of any
competitive sport. That said, it is UNFORGIVABLE for ANYONE, let alone the
visiting team, to be taunting while a member of the home team lies injured on
the field. I’ve yet to see a greater display of classlessness than John O’Korn
and the Houston bench jeering at the UCF fans seated in the stands behind them.
Houston fans defending O’Korn say that he was provoked by that section heckling
the Houston bench all game; that UCF fans equally behaved without class and
O’Korn and the Cougar bench were just returning the favor. First of all let’s
be honest, if this is the first time Houston is getting heckled by the opposing
home crowd, what part of Texas do they play football in? Yes, it’s
reprehensible that there were people in the stands who were making asses of
themselves (especially the one guy who got removed for throwing a drink at the
ejected Houston player) but you’re football players and represent of the
program and school you come from. It may not be fair but as long as they wear
that UH on their helmets, they need to be professional and take the drunken
hecklers nonsense in stride. Instead, they played into it and taunted back,
gestured at the crowd throughout the game, started shoving our players after the
play was over and even got in some late hits or cheap shots which often were
not called. Officially there isn’t any press on some of the happenings of the
off-field happenings at the game but the newfound hatred continues to ferment
between the two fan bases in forums and discussion boards across the net;
grievances waiting to be resolved on the field in our future match ups.
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