(05-23-2009 03:34 PM)BlazerFan11 Wrote: [ -> ]1. I said I was 95% sure BandDad. It was a guy who looked just like him, wearing the letters of the frat he is in. I think it's a pretty safe bet.
2. Why didn't he get a UAB hat embroidered? That's what all my frat bros did, even if they were still UAT-first fans. The elders in our chapter would have flipped their sh!t if someone had done that with a UAT hat.
3. How is it counterproductive? If the Greeks aren't even showing school spirit, no one in the student body will.
4. I attended all but a handful of home games as an undergrad, and stood up and cheered for all games, not just Memphis. You may not have been embarrassed by what happened, but we were still mocked for it all across the internet.
1. That's still not "It was him, I know it for sure." If it was him, I imagine we'll hear from him or someone close to him soon enough.
2. I tend to agree, but I don't have enough info to come to a conclusive opinion. I would greatly prefer that UAB fans wear UAB gear. OTOH, I went to Houston and still own some UH stuff, and once in a while (ok, a great while, but still...) I wear some of it. I understand the hostility toward UAB students wearing UA and AU gear, but I still maintain that getting up in their faces about it aggressively is counterproductive. It tends to produce a response of "F you, I'll wear what I damn well please!". I've known Slinky to give people the hat he wore, or literally the shirt off his back, and that approach is far more likely to win friends and influence that person's opinion.
OTOH, I hope that with every class of new UAB students that goes through orientation, anyone wearing Bama/Barner gear gets called out on it, firmly but nicely. It does matter.
3. See above. If it was me, I'd have far rather gotten a PM than have someone run smack on me.
4. I was embarrassed. I hated it, and as I watched the student section erupt I told my wife that it was very bad. I've said so often since, it was a black eye for UAB in the most public of settings.
I also maintain, however, that if Pierre Niles had not attacked a student in our student section then you would not have seen the student section erupt the way it did.
It was wrong. It was a PR nightmare. I'm not apologizing for it. However, if the shoe had been on the other foot and one of our players had gone after a Memphis fan, I'd have been on the player not the fan. I didn't appreciate all the sewage that Memphis fans have spewed about it, and I don't think our own fans should do so either.
Had you said that the conduct of the student section after the incident was reprehensible, that it was regrettable and embarrassing, I'd have agreed. OJG may have said something inflammatory, or may not, but short of his using the N word on Niles to his face at a range of five feet perhaps there is no excuse for Niles striking a fan in the stands.
