Instead of talking about FSU football’s great win this past weekend, most FSU students are discussing the unsportsmanlike conduct that occurred both on and off the field at the game.
If you’re a Florida State University student, you’ve probably grown to hate the University of Florida. There’s a friendly understanding that the two schools are rivals, leading to little disagreements and snide comments. It’s usually not too serious and meant to be good fun. One of the most exciting parts of football season is rivalry week, when rival teams are pitted against each other. For FSU, this happened on Nov. 25, when they played against UF in “The Swamp.” However, the rivalry that was once friendly quickly went too far. On the field, there was unhealthy and uncharacteristic poor sportsmanship from UF. In the second quarter, UF’s defensive lineman Jamari Lyons was ejected for spitting at an FSU player during a scuffle.
During the fourth quarter, one UF player was ejected for targeting. During a run play, FSU quarterback Tate Rodemaker slid and two UF students, aiming to tackle, converged and hit him in the head. The tackle was so intense that Rodemaker had to sit out for a couple of plays before he was cleared to play again.
The poor sportsmanship was not exclusive to the football field. An anonymous member of the Marching Chiefs revealed that some UF fans threw empty beer cans and pizza crusts at the majorettes and musicians in the stands.
UF students continued to take the traditionally friendly rivalry too far. It is common practice for Greek organizations to hang posters poking fun at the other team. In FSU’s recent game against the University of Miami, FSU students hung some lighthearted posters that related Miami’s mascot, the Hurricanes, to a “Category 0.”
In contrast, many of the UF banners decided that the object of ridicule would be Jordan Travis. Travis, the former FSU quarterback, recently suffered a season-ending injury in a game against North Alabama. Some banners included teases like “FSU, break a leg” and “Snappin’ FSU’s SZN like JT’s leg.” One banner featured Travis as the subject of a hangman game. Not only is it a comment about Travis’s injury, but the clear racial undertones alluding to lynching make it particularly offensive.
This leads to the question: how far is too far?
There is a divide between poking fun at a rival and being inhumane. While many UF students have underplayed their actions as “jokes,” their behavior has crossed a line that no longer can be shielded by the school rivalry.
Players like Travis get a significant amount of popularity to the point where people begin to idolize them. They also get hate from opposing sides. These two intense ideations can foster an environment where fans forget that the players are still just people and deserve respect. To idolize is to dehumanize. Idolization makes it easy to take FSU’s football players and project a “character” onto them — UF-created characters that don’t have feelings and can therefore be abused and torn apart. This mindset is detrimental. We must find a middle ground between admiration and idolization. There’s a difference between rooting for a team’s success and intentionally hoping for or causing harm to the opposing side.
To idolize is to dehumanize.
Some UF students did speak out against the unsportsmanlike behavior shown. In a comment responding to the banner, one UF student said, “We don’t condone this.” It’s important to for people speak out, and it says a lot about their ability to separate harmless rivalry and cruelty. However, because of the extent of the behavior, the students responsible must be held accountable for their actions.
It’s okay to support a football team. It’s okay to have playful rivalries with other teams. It’s not okay to dehumanize the players. It’s not okay to be downright cruel. There’s a clear line that exists between the two, and to continue in a friendly manner, everyone must stay within the realm of what is acceptable.
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