Jason Gay is a national treasure. A New Yorker who loves sports for sports sake but is a humor columnist not a reporter.
I'll drop in a few paragraphs just for color:
"In college football, there is the right call, and the wrong call, and apparently, there is no need to be sportsmanlike about it anymore.
All you have to do is throw a fit and a few hundred water bottlesand eventually you'll get your way.
What other conclusion can be reached from Saturday's fiasco at the Texas-Georgia game, in which officials flagged the Longhorns for a critical pass interference penalty, only to reverse it minutes later, after grouchy Texas fans (many in the student section, The Daily Texan reported) rained a fusillade of single-use plastic bottles and other trash on to the gridiron?
What are we doing here, friends?
It's hard not to see Texas Football's Impromptu Recycling Night as another example of our cultural slide into Tantrum Nation, a depressingly self-interested society in which what matters most is who whines the loudestand civility takes a back seat to classlessness.
"We've set a precedent," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said later. "If you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, you've got a chance to get your call reversed."
Hard to argue with Visor Man Kirb there. What an embarrassment to Texas and the Southeastern Conferencenot to mention an affront to the good, stainless steel folks of the reusable water bottle industry.
The SEC fined Texas $250,000, a pittance barely enough to buy a third-string punter. Texas released a meek statement: While we deeply appreciate the passion and loyalty of our fan base at the University of Texas at Austin, we do not condone the unsportsmanlike conduct that was exhibited by some individuals throwing objects onto the field during last night's game…
While we deeply appreciate the passion and loyalty of our fan base…Who is Texas trying to placate here? People who threw water bottles and missed?"
There was more but that captures the central element of his piece with regards to Texas.
I read WSJ daily during the week and usually I pay $4.99 per month on a special. I unsubscribe if I can't find a special though I probably could get it through work instead. I find their editorial pages especially sane. But this really isn't an editorial as it is a stand alone columnist. "The Editotial Board" is the by line for the Pspee's positions and that is led by Paul Gigot. Here are other reports that periodically do sports pieces, but Gay (who isn't) does the humor and its endearing, sweet, and most importantly funny.
