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CNN Live At Daybreak
Ugly Weekend for College Football
Aired November 25, 2002 - 06:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: An ugly weekend for college football. Chris Cotter of 790 The Zone here in Atlanta is joining us now to talk about this.
Chris, good morning to you.
CHRIS COTTER, 790 THE ZONE: Good morning, Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Boy, we got some angry e-mail from people really upset about college fans acting naughty this weekend, really some unbelievable stuff over a college football game, Ohio State beating Michigan. That's kind of where it began.
COTTER: Yes.
CALLAWAY: And it just went downhill from there, didn't it?
COTTER: Yes, games, really, college football games this weekend. And the reason why I love college football sports, and why so many people do, is because of the passion that fans have for it. I mean it's really, really...
CALLAWAY: This is OSU for...
COTTER: Yes, this is Ohio State. This is the game. Look at this. This looks like Beirut, you know, 30 years ago.
CALLAWAY: Cars overturned, I know.
COTTER: It's unbelievable. But this happens every single year. And I think the problem is very, very difficult to fix, because you're dealing with 10,000 police officers on a field, for example, and then 20,000 students and fans rushed the field and it's just going to involve, you know, you're going to have fights.
CALLAWAY: Right.
COTTER: You either put the National Guard out there and walls to prevent students from coming onto the field, or nothing at all. When you start spraying paper gas on people, pepper spray, that's when it starts to get out of hand.
CALLAWAY: Well, you know, Chris, you have to wonder, though, we know that some of the Cougar fans were pelting things at the players on the field this weekend. You can do something about that, right?
COTTER: Yes, that's... CALLAWAY: You can penalize the team.
COTTER: Right. That's a different situation. There you have in Washington State and Washington, the officials at the end of that game made a call that the Washington State fans and Pullman disagreed with. And when the officials were leaving the game, the fans began pelting them with bottles and, you know, plastic souvenirs and the like. I mean that is a problem. The problem with that is it happened in Cleveland with the NFL a couple of years ago.
How are you going to stop it? I mean you can penalize a team, but the game's already over. And even if you penalize a team, how is that really going to stop thousands and thousands of fans? This is the problem. It starts with the youngsters, you know, knowing better and learning better without having to result to penalizing them. There's nothing that can be done.
CALLAWAY: So you don't think they should penalize the teams even though they have the ability to do that?
COTTER: If you penalize the team, it's not going to prevent the fans...
CALLAWAY: It cannot stop it?
COTTER: It's not going to prevent fans who have been drinking all day long at the end of a game from, you know, throwing things onto the field. It really is a problem. But I think it all starts with the fact that, they, fans are going to storm the field at the end of big games anyways. Let 'em tear down the goal posts. Don't try and stop them with 10, 15, 20 police officers because it isn't going to work. It's just going to start conflicts.
CALLAWAY: You know, it is still surprising to me when it's college kids. I don't know, you can almost understand it because there's so many different people that come to NFL games. But when it's students...
COTTER: Students get rowdy.
CALLAWAY: Yes.
COTTER: And students, like for these night games, they have all day to imbibe and prepare for the game. By the time game time comes, look out.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, Chris.
Maybe it'll be a quieter weekend next weekend. It would have to be, wouldn't it?
COTTER: It's the last three weeks of the college football season rivalry weeks. I mean there are big games every weekend and people take it very, very seriously.
CALLAWAY: Right. COTTER: Just don't hurt anybody out there.
CALLAWAY: Yes. Stay calm, everyone. It's just a game.
COTTER: Have fun. Have fun.
CALLAWAY: All right, Chris, thank you very much.
COTTER: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 25, 2002 - 06:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: An ugly weekend for college football. Chris Cotter of 790 The Zone here in Atlanta is joining us now to talk about this.
Chris, good morning to you.
CHRIS COTTER, 790 THE ZONE: Good morning, Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Boy, we got some angry e-mail from people really upset about college fans acting naughty this weekend, really some unbelievable stuff over a college football game, Ohio State beating Michigan. That's kind of where it began.
COTTER: Yes.
CALLAWAY: And it just went downhill from there, didn't it?
COTTER: Yes, games, really, college football games this weekend. And the reason why I love college football sports, and why so many people do, is because of the passion that fans have for it. I mean it's really, really...
CALLAWAY: This is OSU for...
COTTER: Yes, this is Ohio State. This is the game. Look at this. This looks like Beirut, you know, 30 years ago.
CALLAWAY: Cars overturned, I know.
COTTER: It's unbelievable. But this happens every single year. And I think the problem is very, very difficult to fix, because you're dealing with 10,000 police officers on a field, for example, and then 20,000 students and fans rushed the field and it's just going to involve, you know, you're going to have fights.
CALLAWAY: Right.
COTTER: You either put the National Guard out there and walls to prevent students from coming onto the field, or nothing at all. When you start spraying paper gas on people, pepper spray, that's when it starts to get out of hand.
CALLAWAY: Well, you know, Chris, you have to wonder, though, we know that some of the Cougar fans were pelting things at the players on the field this weekend. You can do something about that, right?
COTTER: Yes, that's... CALLAWAY: You can penalize the team.
COTTER: Right. That's a different situation. There you have in Washington State and Washington, the officials at the end of that game made a call that the Washington State fans and Pullman disagreed with. And when the officials were leaving the game, the fans began pelting them with bottles and, you know, plastic souvenirs and the like. I mean that is a problem. The problem with that is it happened in Cleveland with the NFL a couple of years ago.
How are you going to stop it? I mean you can penalize a team, but the game's already over. And even if you penalize a team, how is that really going to stop thousands and thousands of fans? This is the problem. It starts with the youngsters, you know, knowing better and learning better without having to result to penalizing them. There's nothing that can be done.
CALLAWAY: So you don't think they should penalize the teams even though they have the ability to do that?
COTTER: If you penalize the team, it's not going to prevent the fans...
CALLAWAY: It cannot stop it?
COTTER: It's not going to prevent fans who have been drinking all day long at the end of a game from, you know, throwing things onto the field. It really is a problem. But I think it all starts with the fact that, they, fans are going to storm the field at the end of big games anyways. Let 'em tear down the goal posts. Don't try and stop them with 10, 15, 20 police officers because it isn't going to work. It's just going to start conflicts.
CALLAWAY: You know, it is still surprising to me when it's college kids. I don't know, you can almost understand it because there's so many different people that come to NFL games. But when it's students...
COTTER: Students get rowdy.
CALLAWAY: Yes.
COTTER: And students, like for these night games, they have all day to imbibe and prepare for the game. By the time game time comes, look out.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, Chris.
Maybe it'll be a quieter weekend next weekend. It would have to be, wouldn't it?
COTTER: It's the last three weeks of the college football season rivalry weeks. I mean there are big games every weekend and people take it very, very seriously.
CALLAWAY: Right. COTTER: Just don't hurt anybody out there.
CALLAWAY: Yes. Stay calm, everyone. It's just a game.
COTTER: Have fun. Have fun.
CALLAWAY: All right, Chris, thank you very much.
COTTER: You're welcome.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
