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Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
mental_floss co-founder/President/Senior SEC Football Correspondent Will Pearson emailed me this video, which is making its way around the internet. One of the strangest sports moments I’ve ever seen.
Comments (15)
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Its from a Bug Light commercial.
posted by RobertSeattle on 10-21-2008 at 1:51 pm
It’s real
posted by schmelz on 10-21-2008 at 2:19 pm
It’s real…
posted by schmelz on 10-21-2008 at 2:20 pm
I’ve watched this ten times and can’t get over it. It’s like he had a flashback and thought he was still playing. How crazy!
posted by Gregory on 10-21-2008 at 2:21 pm
ESPN has a spot on it. It’s real.
posted by Jonathan on 10-21-2008 at 2:47 pm
Does anyone know what the story is? What happened after?
posted by Taylor on 10-21-2008 at 3:03 pm
From the ESPN story, here’s what the SEC is saying:
“When contacted by ESPN’s Joe Schad, the Southeastern Conference office said after reviewing the play, it believes the umpire was in appropriate position. A spokesman said the umpire raised his arm to defend himself after a change of direction by the runner.”
sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3654428
posted by Jason English on 10-21-2008 at 3:50 pm
what happened is
the SEC decided the ref was protecting himself from an imminent collision with the QB and decided not to discipline him
USC ultimately lost the game
If I were at USC, I’d be pitching a fit right about now… that looks pretty intentional
google: usc quarterback hit
you’ll get all kinds of links
posted by ann on 10-21-2008 at 3:52 pm
Nothing happened. The game went on as normal with no penalties or anything. One of the coaches afterward was joking how disappointed he was that the ref didn’t wrap him up and finish the tackle. After all, football players are all taught that when you make a tackle wrap your arms around the guy and take him to the ground.
I think the ref was just making sure he didn’t end up on the highlight reel as the zebra that was trampled by a quarterback!
posted by Stu on 10-21-2008 at 3:53 pm
Even Spurrier (South Carolina’s coach) said the ref didn’t do anything wrong. Check out the ESPN article link in my name.
Anyway, South Carolina scored three plays later, but as was pointed out, LSU won anyway.
Oh, and Geaux Tigers!
posted by Lindsey on 10-21-2008 at 4:35 pm
I don’t know how anyone can say the ref “didn’t do anything wrong.” You can say it didn’t matter to that drive or to the game—both of those things are true. But he absolutely made a ridiculous bonehead move. I wouldn’t be confident in his ability to not randomly tackle quarterbacks in future games.
posted by Paul on 10-21-2008 at 4:53 pm
Wow and I thought the Refs were unfair to the Gators, this takes it to a whole new level!
posted by Mike on 10-21-2008 at 10:00 pm
the angle is the reason it looks intentional. in reality the qb was going right for the ref, the qb juked left, the ref went right. just like what happens at the grocery store every week for me, at which point I thank the lady for the dance.
posted by brandon on 10-21-2008 at 10:43 pm
LSU Les Miles said in his Monday press conference his only problem with the play was the fact that the referee did not wrap up and drive Garcia to the ground. It is totally real and absolutely incidental.
posted by Martin Abrahams on 10-22-2008 at 7:32 am
If I were in the SEC hierarchy, that ref would never work again.
The video makes it clear: he stepped *into* the play and forward to deliver the QB a forearm shiver.
I am willing to accept what brandon says (above) if a vid of another angle shows it.
posted by BlogDog on 10-22-2008 at 8:52 am