by T. Scott Boatright
Let me start by saying I probably have some bias regarding this situation. I’m admittedly known to “wear black and gold” glasses when it comes to Saints and Grambling football.
But as someone who found himself in the middle of the halftime action during Grambling State’s home football game against Bethune Cookman, I remain confused at the way it has all turned out to this point.
Before the second half began came as the Tigers were walking off the ramp onto the turf on their sideline and a group of Wildcats walked through the Grambling team and tempers immediately flared, ending up with four or five minutes of scuffling followed by another 10-15 minutes for the referees to regain control, figure out who was going to be ejected, and then start the second half.
Subsequent videos from media sources and posted by fans on social media have since painted a pretty good picture of how it happened.
Known as “The Hole,” the playing field at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium is well below street level. To access the field from locker rooms, players walk down a concrete ramp to the field itself.
Most of the Bethune Cookman players had already taken the field and were either on their sideline or warming up at the other end of the field as the Grambling players walked down the ramp to take the field.
Much of the GSU team had reached the field and were already starting to warm up in the east zone, but some of the players were still making their way down the ramp to be able to spread out and begin their warm ups. A cart used by EMS personnel sat at the bottom of the ramp on the very eastern edge of the playing field.
Video shows a pair of Bethune Cookman players walk down into the midst of the GSU players on the ramp waiting to get a chance to take the field, and it shows those two Wildcats jawing with the Grambling players, with one — redshirt junior safety Jordan Johnson, wearing jersey No. 24 — even turning around to face some of the Tigers he was walking through and acting quite animated, eventually to the point of making contact with some of the G-Men.
And that’s when push came to shove. Eventually the shoving match moved around both sides of the EMS cart as the throng of players worked their way westward toward the GSU bench.
I actually didn’t realize what was going on at first. I had watched some of the G-Men begin their end zone stretching and warm ups but had turned toward the field looking at my cell phone.
When I heard some of the crowd exclaiming behind me, I turned and looked over my left shoulder to see what they were excited about. But suddenly I was bumped from behind and found myself in a mass of both black (GSU) and gold (BC) jerseyed players yelling, pushing and shoving.
Being a not very big guy, I quickly ducked down and worked my way out of the heated huddle as the mass of players yelling, pushing and shoving each other quickly worked their way toward the Grambling bench. And the mass of players on that south side of the field kept growing as the Bethune Cookman players who had been warming up noticed and ran toward the action.
Pushing and shoving quickly became punching for some, and suddenly the all-out brawl was on.
Let me say right here that for the most part, I watched as the GSU coaching staff tried to break things up and settle the situation down.
But it kept on escalating.
Eventually, after a long delay, the second half began after a handful of players from each team had been banished to the locker room.
On Monday, the Southwestern Athletic Conference Office acted, announcing that 27 players had been suspended for at least the upcoming weekend’s games — 18 from Grambling and nine from Bethune Cookman. It was also announced three of those suspensions would be for two games.
It was also announced that Grambling had been fined $40,000 while Bethune Cookman had been fined $25,000.
But that’s the last we’ve heard so far. The names of the ejected players from either team have not yet been publicly announced. Neither has the reasoning behind the difference between the costs of the fines.
So why the difference in fines, and which players received the two-game suspensions?
As a communicator who needs to know such things, I find that troubling.
GSU coach Mickey Joseph took a backlash for a postgame comment saying that Grambling would meet disrespect with disrespect. On Monday, Joseph backed off his words to some degree, reading from a prepared statement that his comment was never meant to condone violence or unsportsmanlike behavior.
A similar incident happened in Lafayette on Saturday at the end of the football game between Louisiana-Lafayette and Texas State.
On Monday, the combined 13 players suspended — seven from ULL and six from Texas State — was announced by the Sun Belt Office, with one player from each team being banished from playing for the rest of the season. No fines were announced for either team.
Meanwhile, here we are on Thursday, still waiting to see what players will not take the field for Grambling this weekend against Alcorn State. We still don’t know the reasoning for the difference in the fine amounts coming from that game.
And my problem at this point is that inquiring minds like mine want to know.
It was an incredibly unfortunate incident that occurred at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium, but one I feel should be handled with total transparency. Yet two days before kickoff at Alcorn State, there’s still much we don’t know, or therefore understand.
And for me anyway, that is also unfortunate.
