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Caban
Sports Column
No doubt many of you may feel the headline to this column is a bit strong. However, I have a reason for going big.
Last week, the 115th edition of the Red River Rivalry was held. The annual game between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas is among the most celebrated in all of college football.
This is likely due to the two team’s proximities and their shared status as blueblood programs. Both teams have won more than 900 games in their respective histories as well as multiple national championships.
The rivalry heated up a notch in the last year as teams beyond the Sooners started doing a Horns Down sign (an inversion of the Longhorns’ signature Hook ‘Em Horns” hand sign).
The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto wrote an article Oct. 9 about the origin of Hook ‘Em Horns and its creator, 88-year old H.K Pitts. We’ll get back to Pitts shortly.
In his article, Mussatto recounted how “former West Virginia quarterback Will Grier and wide receiver David Sills were flagged last season for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Texas. Their violation? Flashing the Horns Down, an act dozens of Sooners had done before them.”
Predictably, this fired up a Big 12 quarterback known to speak his mind. No, it wasn’t Baker Mayfield, but rather Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger.
Mussatto’s article recalled Ehlinger’s Tweet after last November’s 42-41 defeat by Texas to West Virginia.
“I remember every single team/ player that disrespects the rich tradition of the University of Texas by putting the Horns down,” Ehlinger tweeted after the West Virginia game. “Do not think it will be forgotten in the future.”
I’d reference the Tweet itself, but it no longer appears on @ sehlinger3’s page as of this week.
Now before any of you think I’m being a Texas hater, consider the following: all players from both teams were assessed unsportsmanlike penalties for a pregame scrap.
As I tuned into the game last Saturday, I heard Fox Sports’ Gus Johnson share the news of the mass penalties.
Simply, put I don’t think using any kind of Horns gesture is worth a penalty and often on-field are a little overblown.
The epitome of the anti-climactic on-field “fight” is 90 percent of all baseball bench-clearing brawls. Both teams get ticked off, run onto the field, but few players actually take shots at the other. It’s a long-winded way of showing the other team that they don’t like them.
However, after Saturday’s game, we learned the rest of the story and why the penalties were warranted.
So far, the best account I’ve found was from Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.
The second paragraph of Rittenberg’s story told me all I needed to know. It quoted the game’s referee, Mile Defee, of the Big 12.
“They both came together and started jawing and started pushing,” Defee said of the on-field scuffle. “I’m not sure there weren’t punches thrown. I got hit a couple times. My head linesman got hit. It was just clear-cut because I had warned both coaches prior to the start of the game about how we were going to manage pregame and that we wanted this game started without incident.”
Defee went on to say this is the first time he’s ever called a penalty in his career before a game.
As multiple coaches have told me, penalties are mental mistakes. And in this case, it was a moment where players turned off their brains.
My advice for this weekend and beyond: please shut up and play.