Passing those hard feelings on to the next generation

[Schnauzer]

Let me preface this by saying I have had the pleasure of tailgating with TAW, and have very nice relatives in Wisconsin to boot. Good people. So, this is all in perspective but when it comes to a rivalry game the "hate" word can have a different meaning. At least to me it does.

With that being said, I have told the story several times here about the time leaving the Metrodome after the 2003 win when a drunken Badger fan saw my (then) 5 year old son drop his souvenier football... only to walk up and kick the football as hard as he could into the street as my son tried to pick it up. It is sort of like my very own chairleg-in-the-eye story... except it is real.

Anyway, I had emailed my same (now 14 year old) son a couple axe week videos this morning and his reply to one of them fits the rivalry theme.. It is clear evidence the rivalry lives on. The names have been altered to protect the innocent:




From: "My Son" <[email protected]>
To: "Me" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2012 10:47:35 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Fwd: AXE III


I remember every minute of that game and replay in my head at night, yes my hatred for Wisconsin started young.

Sent from my iPad



From: ME <[email protected]>
Date: October 19, 2012, 9:39:55 AM CDT
To: My Son <[email protected]>
Subject: AXE III
Reply-To: ME <[email protected]>


And of course... you can always say you were THERE the last time the Gophers won the axe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YVfSqfOEMI&feature=player_embedded

This was the day that dude kicked your football.

That alone should have been enough background for you to learn to hate Wisconsin for a lifetime. You didn't even have to learn the hatred over the years, like the rest of us.

 

[mnsports1]

How did you restrain from kicking the guy in the balls?

 

[Schnauzer]

About a half dozen Gopher fans were on the guy so fast that I would never have been able to get near him. It hapened in full view of a lot of people. I admit to having the urge, but between keeping my hand-holding situation with my son in the crowd, and trying to retrieve the ball... I was able to keep my cool. I got him out of there so fast I never did see if all the pushing and shouting resulted in a fight behind me. The thing that made it so bad was the fact the guy kicked it as hard as he could just as my son was trying to pick up the ball. His leg/foot never touched my son but couldn't have been more than a couple centimeters from catching his fingers. Had he actually made contact with my son, it would have been a whole different story. My last glimpse was of the multitude of Gopher fans pushing the guy up against one of the sport statues on the NW side of the dome, with a lot of yelling.

 

[wait!what?]

the better lesson you taught him is 'cooler heads prevail' this will never change.

I kinda hope someone punched him so hard he lost his water tho.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

And yet you still tailgate with TAW, who bashes the Gopher's over on Beckyville. Strange bedfellows
indeed. If that had happened to my son, I would have made an effort to get to the guy. I don't care how many guys I would've had to crawl over.

 

[GophersInIowa]

And yet you still tailgate with TAW, who bashes the Gopher's over on Beckyville. Strange bedfellows
indeed. If that had happened to my son, I would have made an effort to get to the guy. I don't care how many guys I would've had to crawl over.

Why would you expect anything less in a rivalry? We all bash the Badgers over here all the time.

 

[RodentRampage]

Going after the guy would be tempting, but being in charge of a 5 year old in a crowd, I'd be reluctant to go after the guy just because that would distract me. It looks like others took care of the situation.

Now, I wonder if he could have been charged with assault. Make him plea in court that he wasn't trying to kick a child, but just wanted to deprive a child of a toy. That would get some sympathy. The people who went after him should have frog marched him back, football in hand, forced him to his knees and made him give it back and apologize.

Any move that someone makes that even looks like an attack on a child puts us at DEFCON-1.