The Right to Stand in Mississippi

Well, I told you about my passion for the Tigers and college football, and of course, I am not the only one. The South in particular can be downright crazy when it comes to their team, and unfortunately I got to experience this firsthand in Oxford, MS, last night. I'm sure this is not the worst thing that happened in that stadium last night, and I know it's not the worst thing I have heard about from this weekend(such as an Alabama fan yelling Roll Tide at an Auburn fraternity party, inciting a riot, and trying to pay a mentally retarded individual to take the blame). But it happened to me, so I shall tell it, as unbiased and as fair as I can.

I went with my parents and we settled into our seats in the end zone about thirty minutes before the game started. They were pretty good seats actually, I was right on the aisle and had a direct view down the middle of the field, right behind the goal posts. Ole Miss scored the first touchdown. On their next possession, Memphis drove down the field to the Ole Miss 3 yard line, right in front of our end zone. It was 3rd down with 2 yards to go for a first down. Will Hudgens came in as QB and threw a short TD pass to Earnest Williams.

I stood up to watch the 3rd down play that was occurring almost right in front of me, and then continued to stand and cheer when my team had scored a touchdown. Our first touchdown of the season. A TD that would lead to a tie game at 7-7. A TD that occured literally right in front of me. Apparently this irked a particular Ole Miss fan behind me. As I was cheering, before Memphis had even kicked the extra point or the band had begun to play, this 60 something year old Ole Miss fan directly behind me started yelling at me to sit down. I told him that I would not sit down, as I was celebrating my team scoring a TD. Apparently he didn't like me standing up during the play or afterwards, saying I was the only one, even though the end zone was populated pretty evenly, but with a Memphis majority considering that our band took up an entire section. So this went on, him telling me to sit down, me saying no, I would cheer my team's score, him saying that he would make me sit down, me saying fine go get security, and so on, both of us yelling at the time.

So he goes down the 10 or so rows to where the event staff worker is standing. While he is gone, his son or friend, a man around 40 years of age who is sitting with them, but three seats down, a man I have not talked to, a man that I am in no way obstructing his view, decides to grab my shirt and left shoulder and yank me back to force me to sit down. At this point I said a few choice, unpublishable, words to him, but did not retaliate. Oh, by the way, his 6 year old daughter that was with him was crying and scared at this point. By now someone has gotten security and they come up there and my father tells him what had happened. He asks me if I want to press charges and I say yes. The security guard motions for the man who grabbed me to come see him in the aisle. I guess the man stepped down to my row and on the way past me he shoves me down right in front of security. He then begins to struggle with the security guard who cuffs him and escorts him out. I stand back up, shocked. Then, the wife of the original man, the 60 year old guy, decides to grab my head, pulling my hat and sunglasses off. I turned around and said a few more choice words to her, at which point my father and another rather large Memphis fan herded me a couple of rows forward. At this point things had calmed back down, the man had been cuffed and led out, and the rest of their party had left. All of the sudden here comes the 60 year old couple, and the women gets right in my face and says "You're gonna..." something-no one around us could understand. And then they left.

Needless to say the game was ruined at that point. It didn't help that Memphis got routed. I really feel that I did very little wrong in this situation. Thinking through it, the only thing I should have done differently is not yell back at the man when he told me to sit down. It was just so ridiculous that he wanted me to sit down when the Tigers had just scored that I was not going to give in to him and sit down. This is a football game, not an opera or the theater. Fans stand up and cheer all the time. In fact, if the situation were reversed, I would have still been standing up on that third down play cheering on my defense.

But this has been typical Ole Miss fan behavior over the years. Walking through The Grove before a game is opening yourself up to being yelled and cursed at by numerous preppy, ridiculously dressed rednecks who call the U of M "Tiger High" and rail against the ills of Memphis, but for some reason come here to work and live after their glory days at the so-called "Harvard of the South." They supposedly banned alcohol in The Grove a couple of years ago, but many of these types of incidents are obviously alcohol induced. In fact, Ole Miss has an embarrassing history of deadly incidents involving alcohol in the past couple of years. There was the student who dragged and killed a police officer when he was drunk and high, and the boys who died in the ATO house fire were reportedly left behind because their brothers could not awaken them because they had passed out. I will not be applying to residency at Ole Miss, even though it is in Jackson, because I do not want to be associated in any way with this university. Hopefully the home game next year will mark the end of this series and I will never have to return to Oxford. In fact, it would not bother me if I never returned to the state of Mississippi.

Hopefully next week will be better. The game is at home and we will be tailgating in our spot and sitting in our seats with other Tiger fans and friends. I am still sorry that this happened, and it is definitely upsetting, but I feel I didn't do anything wrong. It seems these people were just looking for a fight. I am just glad that Katie and Drew weren't there. To any normal Ole Miss fans that read this, I apologize and know that you are not all like this. In fact, through the course of the game 3 or 4 Ole Miss fans came up to me to apologize for these people's behavior. I will learn lessons from this and move on, looking forward to next week. Go Tigers Go! And as the fold from Miss State say-Go to He** Ole Miss!