Sportsmanship spreads

By BERRY TRAMEL, Staff Writer, btramel@opubco.com Comments 0
Published: November 7, 2009

The college football season began with an ugly incident — Oregon's LeGarrette Blount punching Boise State's Byron Hout in a post-game fracas.

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But since then, we've seen encouraging signs on the sportsmanship front:

* Ohio State-Navy: The Buckeyes invited the Midshipmen to run onto the field together before the game, and the Ohio Stadium crowd responded with thunderous applause.

* West Virginia fans: The Saturday after Connecticut cornerback Jasper Howard was murdered, UConn played in Morgantown, W.Va., and the Mountaineer fans gave the Huskies a standing ovation.

* Ole Miss tailback Rodney Scott: Last week, Auburn's Josh Bynes and Zac Etheridge tackled Scott, but Etheridge suffered a cracked vertebra and couldn't move. Bynes immediately recognized the danger and told Scott, the opponent laying under Etheridge, not to move. Scott, who is coached to pop up and immediately return to the huddle, did as he was asked. He lay perfectly still for several minutes, until medical personnel could stabilize Ethridge and remove him from the field. Ethridge regained feeling and was able to walk at the hospital later Saturday.