I've been thinking about Colorado this past week. I’m thinking, gee, they’re lost and it’d be nice if they were better so it’d be more of a rivalry. Then I realize - this is Colorado I’m talking about. You know, Boulder, Colorado, the land of too many Californian kids with trust funds, the state whose people take credit for the Rocky Mountains as if they built them themselves, the school where a fan would use a laser pointer to blind the opposing quarterback or have a whole student section tossed from a game for throwing stuff onto the field.
That Colorado.
When you talk to Buffs fans, they have a single incident they use to point out the classlessness of Husker fans - the idiots who put up the "Sal is dead, Go Big Red" sign years ago. They’re right about the sign, but the difference is that singularity. Colorado fans continue to exhibit classless behavior, as I’ve mentioned above. If those weren't enough for you there’s certainly more where that came from.
So, when you hear this stuff about ‘every fan base has their jerks’ stuff from them, don’t accept it as anything more than an excuse. Their university’s administration could do something about their fan behavior, such as removing student season ticket holders or expelling them from the university to make a point, but they chose not to. This indicates that it’s a systemic problem and that their administration could care less about their fan behavior.
This isn’t just about Buffs fans hating on Nebraska. They treat everyone else with the same level of contempt, such as when they threw lemons, batteries, water bottles, tennis balls, and marshmallows with coins in them at Texas Tech’s band in 2002 after which the University of Colorado police did nothing:
Bearden played a tape recording of the halftime performance, in which an array of debris could be seen showering the field and band members and flags ducking to miss objects.
This of course occurred before the "Competing With Class" initiative which was started in 2003. The initiative includes the following guidelines:
• Student-Athletes, Coaches, and team personnel will respect and appreciate each and every fan.
• Guests will be treated in a consistent, professional and courteous manner by all stadium and team personnel.
• Guests will enjoy the football experience free from disruptive behavior, including foul or abusive language or obscene gestures.
• Guests will not engage in fighting, throwing of objects or attempting to enter the field, and those who engage in any of these actions will immediately be jected from the game
The initiative has done a lot to change the behavior, hasn't it? Perhaps it's not worded correctly, and should include something to point out that "guests" includes Colorado fans as well. Or maybe they just don’t care, as evidence shows from last year’s Nebraska game:
- 84 total ejections
- 57 ejections were alcohol-related
- 5 were for throwing snowballs
- 3 people were ticketed for underage drinking
- 5 people were taken to detox
30 people were ejected from Folsom Field during two of CU's home games this season: Kansas and Florida State. That was the most of any game this year before Friday's match-up with Nebraska.
It's hard to respect a conference foe and potentially see them as a rival when they have so much disrepect for themselves.
The first salvos of this week have been fired by Ralphie Report. The Ralphie dudes have done a good job of compiling our shots at Colorado over the season. Looking at the comments, I’m thinking we could have been nastier. After seeing the comments on the article I have to wonder whether or not we should have been.
I hope we kick their asses. On the field, that is. Otherwise, let’s just continue to be better than them. It's not like the bar has been set very high.