Back when I was in college and running the student newspaper, the UCF football team went on a hilariously humiliating 17-game losing streak that included a breathtaking 0-11 season. Game attendance was in the toilet and the crowds were nothing more than drunken messes of frat boys and homeless people trying to get free food. Needless to say, a win was a luxury at that point.
So it wasn’t all that surprising that when UCF defeated Marshall to break the losing streak that fans decided to rush the field and tear down the goalposts. I was on the sidelines as fans were pressing up against the rails. Friends yelled to me to ask if they’d get Tazed for going on the field, and the cops I spoke with laughed and said no because they were outmanned and not in the mood to get trampled. When the game clock expired, fans started leaping over the rails.
I watched as body after body was slung over the bars, and I witnessed three different guys snap their legs on the concrete as they dropped like sacks of soil. It was both terrifying and hilarious, but since that day I’ve never understood why people rush the field. And on Saturday it happened three times. In one game.
