I want to start this week with kind of a follow-up to my column last week, specifically talking about college football rivalry games in the United States.
Last week saw the worst and the best of these games, and happened to be two of the games I mentioned.
On Thursday evening, Mississippi State and Mississippi met in the annual Egg Bowl game. Tempers ran high, and boiled over at the end of the third quarter.
There was a true bench-clearing brawl, which saw every player on both teams involved. The referees and coaches managed to get everyone separated, and then the refs met to discuss penalties.
The head referee came out to midfield and announced unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against all the players on each team. In theory, that was 170 penalties on one play, all of which offset.
He then added, “That is the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for each player.”
A second such penalty would result in immediate ejection, so the officiating crew was serving notice to both teams that any further shenanigans would result in an early shower for the players involved.
The following night, the University of Washington was on its way to Washington State for the Apple Bowl game. On the way there, the bus carrying the UW band flipped over. There were no serious injuries, but several members of the band had to be taken to hospital.
The band leader said they would not play at the game, since the whole band couldn’t be there.
When the UW players took to the field before the game, they were greeted with their university fight song – played by the Washington State band.
That’s class.
I also saw a couple more signs of winter in Prince George, despite the temperatures the past few days. While driving downtown, I saw an extension cord lying in the middle of the intersection. I guess someone forgot they had plugged the vehicle in the night before.
I also saw a couple of vehicles using the moron’s theory of snow clearing from the windows. You know, clear just enough off the front window so I can see a small amount of what’s happening ahead of me, and don’t worry about what’s happening beside or behind me.
You may be in too much of a hurry to clean off all your windows, but you’ll lose even more time when you’re stopped by the police or run into something else.
