[NU Sports] Texas and Ohio State's Criminal Fans

[Michael Vance]

At 9/12/2005 09:53 PM, BSchooler at aol.com wrote:
>Which brings me to the next subject. What happened in Columbus before and
>after the Texas game is criminal and a disgrace to the Big Ten. The 
>behavior of
>some OSU fans is criminal.

After reading the posts from HornFans that Bob cited, I have little doubt 
that some of them are exaggerated at best, and more likely outright 
falsehood.  (A former UT player supposedly broke the neck of an OSU student 
who attacked him and his family?  Please!)  However, I recall, after my own 
road trip to Columbus for NU's night game there in 2001, thinking that 
while a lot of dOSU fans were merely boorish that night, that some of them 
were probably only reversal of the scoreboard away from being 
threatening.  With their team having won, they were amusingly drunk, 
stupid, and obnoxious.  But you could just tell that if NU had won (or if 
we had been Michigan) that the mood would have been vastly different.

A lot of it has to do with night football.  I've said many times before 
that I love night games.  But some of the things that I love about night 
games (more tailgating time and a more electric, "night out on the town" 
atmosphere) also make it a lot easier for people to get out of 
control.  I've never been to a day game in Columbus, but I'll bet it's a 
lot calmer than what I saw in 2001 or what UT fans experienced on Saturday.

-Michael