Fanbogs - College Football Weblogs

September 29, 2005

LSU issues apology to Tennessee

AD Skip Bertman apologized to the Tennessee AD, president, and fans for the rowdy behavior before & after the LSU football game.

LSU fans rocked the Tennessee team bus and threw beer bottles, cracking four windows. LSU police had to intervene to lead the buses out of harms way.

Bertman attributed the behavior to some bad eggs among the crowd attending the game:

In his letter, Bertman congratulated Hamilton on Tennessee's come-from-behind 30-27 victory in overtime. He then went on to apologize to Hamilton, the school president and all Tennessee fans for the incident outside the stadium.

"As you know, there is unfortunately an element in every crowd that does not exhibit good sportsmanship," Bertman wrote. "And when crowds grow to the size of those on a football game day, it takes only a very small percentage of offenders to ruin the day for so many."

Bertman said the bottle throwers were not representative of all LSU fans.

Classy move by Bertman to answer this head on. I know that every university has "those fans" and LSU certainly has a reputation as one place where the occasional a-hole will ruin it for all involved, but episodes like this are never representative of the school/fans in general.

(Sarcasm alert)
No word yet on if Bertman will issue an apology to the LSU fans for blowing a huge lead at home.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

Share|

 

Comments:

  1. Danimal said:

    posted on September 29, 2005 3:52 PM — 162.111.235.16 — link — abuse?



    It was a classy move to offer an apology, but I tend to find the old “it only takes a few bad apples” disclaimer to be a little bit disingenuous. One could read between the lines and come to the conclusion that LSU and their “true fans” are claiming to be the victims here as well

  2. VOLPIMP said:

    posted on September 29, 2005 4:15 PM — 208.0.27.10 — link — abuse?



    Grand gesture, but really unnecessary as the same probably has happened on every other campus after a tough home loss. I'm sure the Al Qaeda faction of Tennessee fans felt a need for apology, but not this one, I'm just grateful for a win.

  3. nixforsix said:

    posted on September 30, 2005 12:47 PM — 64.247.254.58 — link — abuse?



    ""As you know, there is unfortunately an element in every crowd that does not exhibit good sportsmanship,""

    This statements does not apply to the actions of LSU's fans. You know there is not a group of fans on every campus that throw rocks and bottles and break windows on the opposing team's buses. It's also not a common occurence for AD's to have to apologize to other schools. But how many times has Bertman done that in the last three or four years. Bertman plays down the violence because he doesn't want to perpetuate the rumors, but he knows that it's a serious problem.

    I know that every school has it's good fans and every school has it's rogue fans. But just about everyone agrees that the rogue segment of LSU fans are the South's nastiest and most violent.

  4. EER14 said:

    posted on September 30, 2005 2:32 PM — 129.71.238.253 — link — abuse?



    nixforsix, Maybe Bertman should try and schedule LSU rival games the same time WVU plays their rival in the East. If a Mountaineer fan spits in the wrong direction the National Media eats us alive. We also seem to have a bit of a couch burning problem with our ...rogue segment as I am sure you have read in recent years.

    Go Mountaineers pound Virginia Tech.

  5. Johny said:

    posted on October 2, 2005 10:10 PM — 68.155.98.72 — link — abuse?



    i'm glad they threw bottle at the buses, geaux tigers

  6. Christina Griffin said:

    posted on October 7, 2005 7:15 PM — 67.33.112.42 — link — abuse?



    Well, well, well. LSU admitting that there is a problem with its fans? Surely not?!?! As an SEC football fan, I have been to games in several different stadiums--UT, LSU and UF just to mention a few--and I am here to tell you--LSU fans are by far the worst! I understand team pride and school spirit, but I also understand the necessity for good sportsmanship and common courtesy. We were walking through LSU's campus on the way to the stadium, and our 12 year old son was scared by the way the LSU fans were acting. He was actually afraid they were going to hit him for wearing their opponent's colors--and this was before the game! College kids will be college kids, but unless they are called to task for their behavior, it will never get any better in Baton Rouge!

Please note that all comments are subject to the Fanblogs Comment Policy.