So there was a violent incident at the Rose Bowl following last weekend's incredible victory. It was already diaried up here.
Ranelar and the rest of BN members have already spoken up eloquently and forcefully on behalf of the rest of us, when they called out this despicable behavior by some hooligans posing as football fans as unacceptable, appalling, and just disgusting. Whoever injured that poor Trojan fan should be brought in front of justice and get their due punishment. And if this group of blowhards do turn out to be UCLA fans, then we are ashamed and disgusted. There is absolutely no room for asshats like these losers in our Nation.
However, it is important to note that, to date, we have seen no evidence that this specific act of violence was committed by UCLA fans as originally alleged/reported by a local reporter. In fact, the Pasadena police hasn't found any witness and per this report from a Pasadena paper there certainly was no evidence of a pattern of mob behavior on the part of UCLA fans.
Yet, interestingly, a lot of Trojans around the internets (who have been on an incessant whine binge ever since our Bruins beat up their Trojan starlets on the Rose Bowl turf) used that horrific (but isolated) incident to play the victim card all last week lamenting, whining about poor sportsmanship on the part of UCLA fans (even though that isolated incident, by the alleger's own account, didn't have anything to do with the game result, having taken place prior to the game).
Trojan fans used that one incident to complain about meanie, bottle throwing football fans at UCLA sporting events and shrieking about a violent atmosphere at the Rose Bowl.
Well, I wonder if they remember this during another UCLA-Southern Cal event a little more than five years ago (Todd Harmonson and Lee Jenkins, "Record crowd costs Trojans USC-UCLA NOTES: USC is assessed two technicals when fans throw debris onto the court" The OC Register, February 9, 2001)?
With 1:57 to play, Trojans forward Sam Clancy fouled UCLA's Ray Young and picked up his fifth foul. A fan threw a towel onto the court, and the officials slapped USC with a technical foul.
The towel was followed by a water bottle, but the officials, who had warned the crowd about throwing debris on the court, only assessed the one technical.
But the Trojans were hit with another technical foul with 25.1 seconds to play when another item was thrown on the court.
And if anyone wants to dismiss that event from 2001, then consider this one from last year when the President of Southern Cal had to ban alcohol to bring the unruly, out of control mobs at Trojan home games under control (emphasis ours throughout):
And, no, the Trojan bottle throwing is not just directed towards our athletes. I wonder where were these Trojans fans on the internets when stories like this came out a few years ago reporting how they were throwing bottles at their own football team? (David Wharton, "There's No Senior High For Trojans," LA Times, November 3, 2000):
The man yelled an epithet, Papadakis recalled, "and then he threw a bottle at me."
In this disheartening season for the Trojans, the pain has been doubly sharp for Papadakis and the other seniors on the team. They hear booing fans a little more clearly. Each loss hurts a little more because they will not have another season to make up for this one.
So, guys, just LOL a little when Trojans come on here (or pipe up elsewhere around the internets) and play that good old victim card, and give us sanctimonious lectures on class and sportsmanship. That's another area we will take our record over their stained one any time, any day.
GO BRUINS.