Saturday night's Bedlam beatdown touched all levels of the OSU football program.
Over the weekend, reports surfaced on social media that an OSU equipment manager was jumped in the stands on Saturday night while trying to stop OU fans from following their cool-yet-assholish tradition of throwing the opponents' football out of the stadium following a made field goal.
Here's a first-hand report from the equipment manager's aunt:
Before we continue, I agree with his aunt 100%. There's no excuse for that type of behavior, and the people who beat up the guy should be arrested and charged with assault. That being said, couldn't the equipment manager just have waited outside the stadium and caught the ball when fans threw it out? I know I don't have an OSU education or anything, but that seems like an easy and simple solution to the problem!
Wait. It's 2020 now and blaming the victim is wrong, even if it is an OSU fan!
Instead, I'm going to blame the institution that put the victim in the situation in the first place! Seriously, why's OSU sending a kid into hostile, drunken enemy territory to track down footballs. OSU scored 13 points. That's like three footballs! It's not a big deal. Just consider the lost balls the cost of doing business and move on. Then again, Gundy did punt while down 14 in the 4th on the OU side of the field, so maybe balls are in short supply in Stillwater.
Channel 25 shared some apparent Zapruder coverage of the incident. It doesn't provide the best footage, but does serve as a gentle reminder that Boy Scouts don't make the best security guards.
That was brutal. I'm worried that the stupid behavior exhibited by those OU fans may put an end to the tradition of throwing the other team's ball out of the stadium. Expect the University to put even more Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the end zones to beef up security.
Also, is that the best video of the incident? Can someone send us something better? You know, something like this:
Just as we do for the entire OSU football team, we wish OSU's equipment manager the best of luck recovering from his Bedlam injuries. Bones will heal and bruises will go away, and he'll have one hell of a story to tell his buddies in the trailer park someday.
