Gator's Eye-Gouge Fuels Gator Haters
Florida's star linebacker is suspended for a half for almost ripping out a running back's eyes
By TODD WRIGHT
Updated 4:27 PM EST, Mon, Nov 2, 2009
By now you have heard that University of Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes has been suspended for trying to rip out a Georgia running backs eyeballs on Saturday, but what may be more ludicrous than the act was the punishment.
Spikes is suspended for a half against an already severely outmatched opponent. That's really teaching a young man a lesson, Urban Meyer.
"I don't condone that," Meyer said. "I understand what goes on on the football (field), but there's no place for that. We're going to suspend Brandon for the first half of the Vanderbilt game," Meyer said during a press conference Monday. "I spoke with him. That's not who he is. That's not who we are. He got caught up in emotion."
What's worse the SEC has accepted the punishment as just. Was this a matter of punishment fitting the crime or special treatment to a star player?
Get ready to hear a lot of the word "thuggery" in the next few days as the video spreads across the sports media mainstream.
To keep it in context, this incident wasn't a sucker punch at the end of a game like in the Oregon-Boise State fiasco earlier this year, but the replay clearly shows that Spikes was doing a little more than trying to pop out a contact lens.
He was going for a detached retina.
The Canes used to get accused of all types of bad sportsmanship back in the day, but most of that had to do with maybe talking about someone's mama or girlfriend in a not so favorable light. We invented the word swag to cover it up.
Hard to say swagger had anything to do with a move used in no disqualification matches in the WWE.
A replay of the play on Saturday shows Spikes digging his hand as deep as he could into Georgia running back Washaun Ealey's facemask like he was looking for hidden Halloween candy. The defenseless running back could only push his head back as far as he could to get away from the eye gouger.
Needless to say, Spikes' actions were a huge overreaction to some less than savory play between two fierce rivals, but the damage that could have been done to Ealey should have been a factor in the discipline. Ealey, who didn't poke Spikes in the eye earlier as the linebacker claims someone on the Bulldogs did, could have lost his vision.
"Very emotional things happened in that game in particular that were not good for either side, but the bottom line is we're Florida and he's Brandon Spikes and we expect certain things. He understands," Meyer said. But does he?
What Spikes learned was that you don't have to keep your emotions in check in an emotional game and that a national title hunt is more important than good sportsmanship and fair play.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Miami
First Published: Nov 2, 2009 3:08 PM EST
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