Neutral-site college football games are inferior to campus games, everyone agrees, but there are a few potential exceptions. LSU playing Wisconsin at an NFL stadium sounds disappointing, but if that stadium’s Lambeau Field to open the 2016 season (Saturday, Sept. 1, 3:30 ET, ABC)? OK, that’s pretty good.
NCAA, please just let LSU and Wisconsin players do the Lambeau Leap
Just let us have this.
Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
Pro football’s most revered stadium comes with its own built-in celebration, invented by LeRoy Butler in 1993 and carried on ever since:
Hey, that’s fun! The NFL hates fun! But not all fun, I guess!
The NCAA hates fun even more than the NFL hates fun, because "going into the stands to interact with spectators" is one of college football’s officially outlawed celebration tactics*, alongside the dreaded emergence of "any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves)."
FUN!
Will anybody try it anyway?
LSU players are weighing the factors ...
"I sure hope [Wisconsin fans won’t throw me out of the crowd], honestly," [safety Jamal] Adams said. "Hopefully, I can just jump high enough just to get up there."
[Running back Leonard] Fournette, however, has no interest in the celebration.
"Nah, I ain’t trying to leap," Fournette said.
... and Wisconsin’s taken leaping out of its thought processes altogether.
"It's a penalty, so why do it? Why put your team in that situation?" [cornerback Sojourn Shelton] said.
OK, but how about if you win?
"After you win, that's a totally different story," he said. "But I'm not concerned about leaping. I'm trying to get a win."
Coach Paul Chryst, whose quotes are the equivalent of three yards and a cloud of dust, said much the same.
Rather than pondering leaps, he said, "I've been focused on making sure that ball can somehow cross that (goal) line for the Badgers."
Hmm. How about this: if LSU's 356-pound Travonte Valentine, Wisconsin's 340-pound Olive Sagapolu, or a gentleman of similar physique scores a touchdown and plunges into the crowd, damn the consequences, I'll award my Piesman Trophy vote on the spot, 15 weeks early. Do we have a deal?
* "Football players actually shouldn’t be able to wander freely into the stands during games," you say, and OK, OK, I see your point. That’s a pretty good point. However, this is Lambeau Field, and the NCAA should let its officials know they can make an exception here.
See More:
