Fanbogs - College Football Weblogs

October 11, 2005

UVA Suspends Butler for One Game

Apparently the punishment for a cheap, potentially career-ending late hit is a one game suspension at the hands of the University. That's that standard set by the University of Virginia after Brad Butler engaged in one of the most obvious and dirty late hits of the season. His platitudes seem belied by the actual events, however:

"I've never been one to play outside of the rules," Butler said in the statement. "I was not trying to hurt Mathias Kiwanuka. I was engaged in blocking him because he is the type of player who makes plays all over the field. I regret this event occurred and have put the incident behind me."

I'm sure Kiwanuka has made many big plays all over the field... after the whistle. I'm also sure that Butler is so niave as to think that there's any other reason to try to take someone out at the knees after the play is over other than to injure them.

The bottom line is that Butler may be sorry, but odds are that he's just sorry he got caught. UVA fans should be embarrassed that all Butler got was one game for an action which could have easily ended Kiwanuka's career. The ACC needs to step in and up his punishment and if they don't, the NCAA needs to. There needs to be a message sent that this is simply unacceptable.


UPDATE: For those of you who didn't see the video, you can catch it here. [via EDSBS]

UPDATE 2: A longer video can be found here, also courtesy of the gentlemen at EDSBS.

Posted by

 

Comments:

  1. Fanblogs Author Mike Boone said:

    posted on October 11, 2005 1:45 AM — 68.35.231.61 — link — abuse?



    Unbelieveable BS, I expected better from Al Groh.

  2. Jeremy Collins said:

    posted on October 11, 2005 10:02 AM — 167.239.201.232 — link — abuse?



    I have been gone for about 2 weeks due to the death of a friend, but now lets talk about college football. I had just flipped over to this game, seeing as I had BC -7 I wanted to see how things were going. As soon as I turned it on I saw the play. This was the most disgusting things I had seen in any football. Butler should be suspended the rest of the year if not kicked off the team. Much respect lost for Al Groh and the Cavaliers.

  3. AgRyan04 said:

    posted on October 11, 2005 5:22 PM — 24.160.80.2 — link — abuse?



    holy cow...that was my first time to actually watch the video. If that was one of our players who made that play I'd be emailing the AD asking for him to kick him off the team.

  4. pimpdaddy said:

    posted on October 11, 2005 10:16 PM — 69.134.129.11 — link — abuse?



    Total cheapshot, the UVA o-lineman should be suspended for the year as an example. To chop block after the play intentionally is inexcusable.

  5. Alex said:

    posted on October 13, 2005 5:38 AM — 219.103.120.28 — link — abuse?



    That was an absolutely terrible thing to pull and I agree that Butler should be suspended for the rest of the season. Regardless of a clean playing record in the past this kind of obvious attack on another player should not be taken lightly. Here's to hoping that any NFL scouts consider this event when it comes time to draft anyone in the coming seasons.

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