Published: September 10, 2008 12:44 am      

COLUMN: Sometimes it hurts to celebrate

MORGANTOWN — While the timing may be a bit off, considering the results of Saturday’s beat down at East Carolina, our subject this morning is celebrations.

It comes in the wake of a pair of celebrations — one by fans, one by players — that marred what otherwise was a rather eventful football weekend around America and, for a change, West Virginia was only a spectator and not a participant.

Indeed, if anything, it appears that West Virginians have become model citizens when it comes to celebrating victory, as there has not been a couch burning in these parts in almost two seasons now. The WVU faithful has become so tame, in fact, that attack dogs are no longer needed at Milan Puskar Stadium and the local militia can’t recall the last time they have had to pepper spray a reveler into submission.

This was not the case at East Carolina, however, where they are far less blasé about their victories, especially the one over West Virginia this weekend that propelled Skip Holtz’s upstarts to No. 14 in the nation. Their students, wearing purple body paint where civilized folks wear shirts and in all other degrees of dress and undress, rushed the field over, around and through a squadron of police armed with everything but kindness.

The result was some arrests, some of the kids actually getting roughed up, as if a police officer is supposed to approach one of these student-non-athletes and say:

“Eh, excuse me, would you mind putting your hands behind your back so I can cuff you and walk nicely over to the police wagon at the far end of the stadium.”

Doesn’t work that way, folks, for a cop doesn’t know what reaction he’s going to get from a mob of wild partiers. They first must disable the person, get him onto the ground, hold him there and cuff him.

Some in Greenville have charged brutality but, to be honest, the only brutality I saw during this day was the way the ECU offense and defense brutalized West Virginia. Watching that was truly brutal.

The look on the faces of the WVU players as they left the field, students racing past them, was absolutely priceless, filled with anger and embarrassment, jaws slack, eyes blank. They certainly were not in a mood for a party.

On Tuesday, though, the ECU students got a touch of support from a rather unexpected place.

WVU coach Bill Stewart revealed that Skip Holtz had called and apologized for the actions of his fans after the game. Stewart appreciated the call but admitted, “I didn’t see anything that bad. All I saw was a bunch of happy college kids. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you win — celebrate.”

And, if students can celebrate, why can’t players?

That brings us to Part II of our discussion of celebrations. Perhaps you witnessed what happened in the closing seconds of BYU’s 28-27 victory over Washington, how Washington’s Jake Locker scrambled for a touchdown and how his team should have tied the game.

Exuberant, Locker threw both arms into the air, the ball flying upward, then jumped into his teammates arms. He had brought his team to within an extra point of tying, which is reason to celebrate.

However, officials this year have tightened the celebration rule and threw a flag for “excessive celebration.”

Can you really have an “excessive celebration” in such a situation?

Apparently so, because the extra point, moved back 15 yards, was blocked and BYU won.

Were the officials right or wrong.

By the book, they were right.

“After scoring the touchdown, the player threw the ball into the air and we are required, by rule, to assess a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It is a celebration rule that we are required to call. It was not a judgment call,” said Pac-10 official Larry Farina.

Randy Edsall, the Connecticut coach and a member of the rules committee, agrees wholeheartedly with that.

“I saw all that and I don’t know why everybody got upset,” Edsall said on Monday’s Big East coaches conference call. “It’s a rule. You can’t do that. It’s specifically stated in the rulebook that you can’t throw the ball up. Do you feel bad for the kid? Yeah you do, but it’s part of the rule.

“I try to tell my team, when you score, just hand the ball to the nearest official. That’s all you're supposed to do. We want the officials to enforce the rules. Well, the rule’s right there in the rulebook.”

Right. They were just following orders … and where have you heard that before?

Stewart again disagrees.

“It’s a game,” he said. “Let the guys play.”

Stewart understands you have to draw the rule somewhere. He doesn’t want to see guys dancing, pulling out pens and signing autographs, putting on capes in the end zone … but as he said, “It’s a game.”

“Poor kid,” said Stewart. “That’s sad.”

Maybe, and this is just a suggestion, the officials should worry more about replaying fumbles on the sideline that need to be replayed, about spotting the ball right, about penalizing running with a fair catch before they crack down on such an awful indiscretion as celebrating what should be a game-tying touchdown in the final seconds.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.