Iowa State beat writer injured during court storming

Who is to say that Randy Pete didn't break his leg jumping over press row to celebrate the "big win" with the fellas? I've seen guys do it.

 

This storming stuff is entirely out of hand. A top-5 team storming on unranked Iowa? Spare me the rivalry. That's f--king sad.

 

They could end this very easily. Any court or field storming by multiple fans results in the home team forfeiting the game. Make an announcement before the game, then repeat it near the end. Problem solved.

 

Everything's easy!

 

I was covering Mississippi State in an NCAA basketball regional in Birmingham one year, when they lost to 12-seed Butler in the first round. It was a late tipoff and I was on a tight deadline.

My seat on press row happened to be right in front of the Butler band. One of their players jumped on top of the press table to do fist pumps and high five the band members, and he plopped down one size 16 on each side of my laptop.

He was literally standing right over me while I typed furiously. I wasn't really worried for my personal safety, I was just hoping he didn't step on my computer.

 

Not a court storming, but the same idea during a game at Coastal Carolina, when a player flew over press row and landed directly on my shoulder, knocking me into the bleachers and breaking my chair. I'm a big enough guy that I could take a hit, and all I cared about was that my laptop came out unscathed. Ha.

 

That makes more sense that doing nothing at all. Would they actually go through with the forfeit? Probably not. But threatening it would definitely have some effect. It's the only sport where this still happens, essentially because it's college kids. And unless I'm mistaken, they're not even allowed to sell booze at these college games. So these kids are going are pure grit.

 

It's not a "problem" that needs to be solved in the view of anyone but the reporters.

If you want to solve the "problem," the solution will be to put reporters in row 30.

 

I haven't heard about a good storming-the-field episode in college football lately.

 

Register columnist breaks leg in Iowa State court-storming

If the athletic director apologized, couldn't that be grounds for a lawsuit?

I've lived through a couple of those, including one back during college. Turtle up over the laptop, tuck in limbs, and hope nobody steps directly on you. The most recent one, at a high school state soccer match, I wound up basically sitting on the hood of the athletic trainer's "golf cart" as kids streamed all around me.

 

Fans stormed the field at Georgia Tech after they shocked Florida State this year, but it does seem like that is happening less and less in college football.

 

Watching video, it seems like his legs got tangled up from behind by someone rushing the court. Looked like a person with a ponytail, perhaps a young woman.