Illinois, Northwestern To Utilize Flipping Endzones At Wrigley Field

Thanks to ongoing concerns about the unsafe geometry of the upcoming football game at Wrigley Field, some unusual safety measures will be enacted to keep Illinois and Northwestern players from running full-tilt into a wall. According to ESPN’s Chicago radio station, the two teams will share the west endzone:

Set up on east side (RF) endzone deemed dangerous. Ball will always be respotted and offenses move east to west.
This change has since been confirmed by the Illinois SID.

Players, fans, and casual viewers who aren’t complete sadists have to be relieved. Earlier this week, SB Nation’s Illinois community voiced safety (and aesthetic) concerns about the setup, calling it an “abomination”:

I dislike this equally because the right field wall is incredibly dangerous to the players and because they are making the baseball diamond of my favorite team so damned ugly in the process.
SB Nation’s Michigan blogger, who lives two blocks from Wrigley, had similar reservations:

Let me put this gently. Someone is going to die in the east endzone of the All-State Wrigleyville Football Classic.
Awkward though this new arrangement might be to work out, it’s absolutely for the best. The last thing this tilt-a-whirl season needs is a gruesome injury that could have been prevented by a basic grasp of physics. Just make sure any pick-sixing defender headed east knows to pull up in a hurry, and everybody should get through this just fine.

For more on the actual football taking place this weekend at Wrigley Field, visit SB Nation’s Hail to the Orange and Sippin’ On Purple.
HT: Tom Fornelli.