Saturday, November 18
Weblog Post #20 - The Miami-FIU Brawl: A Public Affairs Issue
During a University of Miami (Hurricanes) and Florida International University (Golden Panthers) football game on October 14, 2006, a bench-clearing fight between the two teams escalated into one of the largest brawls in the history of collegiate sports. This blog entry is going to look at fights in sports, how the media portrays them and the effects of their portrayal.
The two schools are only nine miles away from each other. Miami enjoys a rich football tradition that has produced numerous national championships and NFL superstars. The program is also known as "Thug U" and is often plagued by criminal misbehavior, academic dishonesty and booster problems. The young FIU football program is currently in its fifth football season and has been a mainstay in the cellar of the Division 1 football rankings.
The fight was instigated after a Miami player taunted the FIU cheering section. He was hit with a 15-yeard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but it didn't end there. After an extra point kick by Miami, FIU's Chris Smith wrestled Miami holder Matt Perrelli to the ground and punched him. While Perrelli was still on the ground, FIU's Marshall McDuffie, Jr. kicked Perrelli in the helmet. Miami's Derrick Morse jumped on top of McDuffie.
Some of the more notable incidents in the fight:
-A UM player bodyslammed a FIU player onto the ground.
-A UM player was swinging his helmet and hitting FIU players in the head with it.
-A UM player stomped on FIU players with his cleats.
-An FIU player swung a crutch at a Miami player.
The Media has Brawls
There has always been bench clearing fights in sports. However, the pinnacle of these gruesome brawls was a clash between the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. ( See it here! ) As the fight escalated, players entered the stands and began fighting with the fans as fans charged onto the court to spar with the players.
It’s interesting to think about the millions of people that rarely watch college football or NBA basketball. These people go about their lives with little to no opinion about these leagues and how they are run. But once something goes wrong, whether it is a steroid scandal, brawl or random assault, these people hear all about it. Opinions slowly grow. First, these “non-sports fans” are primed by the media and then their opinion is completely formed the next day at the water cooler at work.
Don’t get me wrong, the media does take time to commemorate sports greats like Cal Ripken Jr., Larry Bird and Joe Paterno, but when a brawl like the Miami and Detroit fights happens, it saturates all media. Sports breaks media boundaries and becomes breaking news for all media, not just the sports section. The media puts the NBA and NCAA, two organizations that take pride in their public relations, in a major disadvantage. The players don’t just make themselves and their teams look bad, they make their league and their sport look bad too. In fact, the league probably takes more heat than the players themselves, due to cross-media saturation.
Bad Brawls and Bad Calls
One would think college universities and the NCAA would be stricter with their discipline than a league of full grown multimillionaires. Even though the Detroit fight was far worse, Miami players were using their helmets as weapons, stomping on other players and body slamming others. Most of the players involved missed only one game as punishment. I think this led to an audience backlash. Many audience members are aware of Miami’s bad reputation and feel that the team should be banned from its bowl game this year and have many of its players suspended for the season.
I think the university was trying to go the silent route. “We’ll give these kids a little slap on the wrist and we’ll put all this behind us.” The move did not work as sports commentators, fan call-in shows and many sports writers voiced their displeasure with the light disciplining. The outcry was heard, but only one player received a longer suspension.
It's interesting to see how major institutions behave during a public relations crisis. They know that people forget about their university's education rankings and research breakthroughs. Instead they see a group of troubled young men bashing each others' helmets in and immediately associate the university with it.
Overall
It’s a shame that ugly fights become national news. Universities, students, players and the world of sports are publicly embarrassed at a national level. People who would never tune into a sporting event are quickly updated to a sad state of professional and collegiate sports.
It’s also a shame that an All-American linebacker can be the captain of his team for two years, have the record for most tackles in his school’s history, have a clean record for all four of his collegiate years, graduate with a 3.57 GPA in finance and still go fairly unnoticed(SEE: Mr. Paul Posluszny).
It’s not a new phenomenon, but it’s as unfortunate as ever. Luckily, like everything else in the media, the media hype dies down and everyone forgets all about it until the next fight.
Soon sports fans will be making bets on who will win the fight instead of who will win the game.
The two schools are only nine miles away from each other. Miami enjoys a rich football tradition that has produced numerous national championships and NFL superstars. The program is also known as "Thug U" and is often plagued by criminal misbehavior, academic dishonesty and booster problems. The young FIU football program is currently in its fifth football season and has been a mainstay in the cellar of the Division 1 football rankings.
The fight was instigated after a Miami player taunted the FIU cheering section. He was hit with a 15-yeard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, but it didn't end there. After an extra point kick by Miami, FIU's Chris Smith wrestled Miami holder Matt Perrelli to the ground and punched him. While Perrelli was still on the ground, FIU's Marshall McDuffie, Jr. kicked Perrelli in the helmet. Miami's Derrick Morse jumped on top of McDuffie.
Some of the more notable incidents in the fight:
-A UM player bodyslammed a FIU player onto the ground.
-A UM player was swinging his helmet and hitting FIU players in the head with it.
-A UM player stomped on FIU players with his cleats.
-An FIU player swung a crutch at a Miami player.
The Media has Brawls
There has always been bench clearing fights in sports. However, the pinnacle of these gruesome brawls was a clash between the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons. ( See it here! ) As the fight escalated, players entered the stands and began fighting with the fans as fans charged onto the court to spar with the players.
It’s interesting to think about the millions of people that rarely watch college football or NBA basketball. These people go about their lives with little to no opinion about these leagues and how they are run. But once something goes wrong, whether it is a steroid scandal, brawl or random assault, these people hear all about it. Opinions slowly grow. First, these “non-sports fans” are primed by the media and then their opinion is completely formed the next day at the water cooler at work.
Don’t get me wrong, the media does take time to commemorate sports greats like Cal Ripken Jr., Larry Bird and Joe Paterno, but when a brawl like the Miami and Detroit fights happens, it saturates all media. Sports breaks media boundaries and becomes breaking news for all media, not just the sports section. The media puts the NBA and NCAA, two organizations that take pride in their public relations, in a major disadvantage. The players don’t just make themselves and their teams look bad, they make their league and their sport look bad too. In fact, the league probably takes more heat than the players themselves, due to cross-media saturation.
Bad Brawls and Bad Calls
One would think college universities and the NCAA would be stricter with their discipline than a league of full grown multimillionaires. Even though the Detroit fight was far worse, Miami players were using their helmets as weapons, stomping on other players and body slamming others. Most of the players involved missed only one game as punishment. I think this led to an audience backlash. Many audience members are aware of Miami’s bad reputation and feel that the team should be banned from its bowl game this year and have many of its players suspended for the season.
I think the university was trying to go the silent route. “We’ll give these kids a little slap on the wrist and we’ll put all this behind us.” The move did not work as sports commentators, fan call-in shows and many sports writers voiced their displeasure with the light disciplining. The outcry was heard, but only one player received a longer suspension.
It's interesting to see how major institutions behave during a public relations crisis. They know that people forget about their university's education rankings and research breakthroughs. Instead they see a group of troubled young men bashing each others' helmets in and immediately associate the university with it.
Overall
It’s a shame that ugly fights become national news. Universities, students, players and the world of sports are publicly embarrassed at a national level. People who would never tune into a sporting event are quickly updated to a sad state of professional and collegiate sports.
It’s also a shame that an All-American linebacker can be the captain of his team for two years, have the record for most tackles in his school’s history, have a clean record for all four of his collegiate years, graduate with a 3.57 GPA in finance and still go fairly unnoticed(SEE: Mr. Paul Posluszny).
It’s not a new phenomenon, but it’s as unfortunate as ever. Luckily, like everything else in the media, the media hype dies down and everyone forgets all about it until the next fight.
Soon sports fans will be making bets on who will win the fight instead of who will win the game.
# posted by Jonathan : 4:40 PM
