Editor’s Note: This staff editorial contains profanity.
Tiger Stadium has earned a reputation for being the most intimidating place for an opposing football team to visit – and with good reason. The traditional roar of Mike the Tiger in front of the opponents’ tunnel has become a staple of Saturday nights in Death Valley, and the bourbon-fueled cheers of the student section are the stuff of legend. The coarse language used in some of the students’ more famous chants is well documented and accepted by most fans as nothing more than PG-13 fun at the opposing team’s expense. But the profane outbursts from the student section during Saturday’s game against South Carolina clearly crossed the line of good-natured heckling and jumped into the realm of plain bad taste. University administrators have made their desire to “clean up” some of the more risque elements of student chanting during the games clear, evidenced by the discontinuing of the beloved “Tiger Rag.” Many of our chants already involve some form of profanity, but the outbursts of “Fuck you, Spurrier” and “You suck cock” can only be characterized as childish and disgusting. Before this past game, those types of eruptions were normally the province of shouting rogues with a case of liquid courage. To legitimize that type of language on a grand scale – the vast majority of the student section chiming in – reflects poorly on our University and Tiger fans in general. This comes a mere two weeks after Virginia Tech fans overwhelmingly complimented us on our excellent behavior and hospitality. Clearly our football fans are capable of exhibiting good taste and judgment, but does it take a tragedy to elicit it? The discretion of many students and fans dissipates rather quickly when an issue of athletic competition is at stake, but this does not excuse us from abiding by the minimal mandates of social courtesy. We don’t have to congratulate the other team when they’re winning, but at the same time we don’t need to slander them when they’re losing – at least not to the degree witnessed Saturday. The fact that Tiger fans dislike South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is not the issue here. The ol’ ball coach has posted an impressive record against LSU in his coaching career. Prior to Saturday’s loss, Spurrier had gone 11-1 against the Tigers. Having the student section use vulgar language to disparage him is assuredly not the proper means of reversing this trend. His track record of success against us should not endear him to our fans, but we still must maintain a certain level of respect for his position as a visitor to our stadium. Similarly, the chants of “You suck cock” are rather uncreative, not to mention overtly grotesque. It seems obvious that this chant we made specifically in reference to South Carolina’s nickname “Gamecock,” or more specifically its shortened version “Cock.” Carrying a nickname so easily mocked would seem to indicate a poor choice by South Carolina’s administration, and using that name to represent an entire institution of higher learning might be silly, but we digress. Whether South Carolina’s nickname can be modified into a slang term for male genitalia is not the point – our willingness to repeatedly exploit it is. Our football fans should not be looking to gain the undying appreciation of visiting teams’ fans. Yet with a nationwide television audience witnessing our poor verbal skills, perhaps it is no coincidence the University’s reputation – behaviorally and academically – remains regrettably mired below our ostensible goal of first-rate status.