Rutgers Fans Show Their (Cl)ass

William Haskins

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Obscene fans at Rutgers draw a penalty flag

Posted by [URL="http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/about.html"]Mark DiIonno[/URL] September 11, 2007 9:56AM

The play came late in the game, when Rutgers expanded its lead over Navy to a comfortable level after a tight three quarters.

Navy's Reggie Campbell took the kickoff and ran full speed ahead up the middle with all the force his 168-pound body could generate. Campbell, almost always the smallest and fastest man on the field, hit a wall of XXXL-sized scarlet jerseys and was slammed to the ground at the bottom of the pile. He got up slowly, limping off. This gutsy kid, a slotback who already spent three quarters being chased and tackled by gangs of defensive linemen and linebackers, all weighing at least 100 pounds more than him, was then given a dose of Rutgers' student section class.

''You got f---ed up. You got f---ed up. You got f--ed-up," they chanted.

Reggie Campbell is a senior. After graduation in June he has a five-year commitment to the American military, which, like it or not, is at war.
"This is how you treat people who may die for this country?" said Bill Squires, an Annapolis graduate (Class of'75) who was on the sidelines for the Friday night game in Piscataway and was shocked by the obscene chants directed at the Navy players and fans throughout the game. "It was the most classless thing I've seen."

Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.

''F--- you, Navy. F---you, Navy. F--- you, Navy."

"There were wives and small children up there," said Squires, an academic recruiter for the academy who has been to dozens of away games and never seen such contempt directed at his team. "Our Midshipmen reacted the way they were taught. They didn't respond, but the band started playing 'Anchors Aweigh' to drown them out. Me, I felt like going up there and smacking somebody. I was mad, and it bothered me all weekend."

http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2007/09/obscene_fans_at_rutgers_draw_a.html
 

Bird of Prey

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I don't think there was any political intent, none at all.

Rather, it's the decaying manners of Americans. I think it's gross and inexcusable. I can only hope that enough people stop going to Rutgers' games to have an impact.

Unfortunately this kind of conduct seems all too common. A friend told me not too long ago that although he has season tickets for baseball, he stopped going because he could not longer bear to have his eleven year old son subject to such coarse language and depraved suggestions when a player failed to live up to expectations.

Of course, I wouldn't know. I avoid team sports like the plague.

I can only hope Americans behave better at the Olympics, but I won't count on it.
 

MattW

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If Navy doesn't want to put up with smacktalk, maybe they can field a better team?


ETA - Not that I condone the new breed of Rutgers fans. It used to be just kids getting bussed in for the blowout loss, but now any evening home game impacts my commute home with cars full of wagonjumpers flying flags and yelling at each other.
 

ColoradoGuy

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It cuts both ways

One late afternoon thirty-seven years ago I saw the (soccer) shoe on the other foot. Strangely enough my small, freaky pacifist college competed with Navy in several sports. Standing in the goalie box I saw my right fullback get decked by a Navy player, who then spiked his hand (requiring stitches later), and spit on him. There were several ugly incidents between the fans and us. Of course, as they said, we were all "hippies," whatever they understood that to mean; the fullback had red hair half-way down his back and most of us looked pretty scruffy.

My point?
  1. Nasty fans are nasty fans.
  2. Those self-righteous posters in the Vietnam Memorial thread need to understand feelings ran high on both sides in those days, and neither side has a monopoly on virtue, now or then.
 

InfinityGoddess

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Rather, it's the decaying manners of Americans. I think it's gross and inexcusable. I can only hope that enough people stop going to Rutgers' games to have an impact.

I don't even attend the games, much less watch them. I actually watch very little tv. Furthermore, I agree with you. Since when did our country become so full of spoiled brats? When I was growing up (and this was not very long ago), I was taught that "failure was fertilizer" and to be a good sport, win or lose.
 

rugcat

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One late afternoon thirty-seven years ago I saw the (soccer) shoe on the other foot. Strangely enough my small, freaky pacifist college competed with Navy in several sports.
I played against Air Force Academy as part of a similar hippiesh college soccer team. Same era. Those guys were decent, played hard, beat us soundly and never rubbed it in.
 

MattW

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Guilty as charged.

Upstream RED TEAM!

RED TEAM UPSTREAM!!
The statue of William of Orange (aka Silent Willie) not only whistled at me, but I think he called me a douchebag too...