Winning is a Riot, I Guess

Hopefully this idiot and others like him will still be in jail if the Cats win on Monday. (photo obviously by the Herald-Leader)

It’s a damn shame we don’t get to spend this entire day talking about the Kentucky basketball team, the game it played yesterday and it being one win away from the program’s first national title since 1998. It’s a shame we don’t get to spend all day talking about what a great group of kids this is, what a joy it has been to watch them grow as players throughout the season. It’s ironic in a way that we don’t get to spend all day talking about how much fun it is to watch them play so unselfishly because of the selfish, aberrant behavior of some of the team’s fans.

Sure, we spent a lot of time this morning on First State Financial Sunday Morning Sports Talk (9 am-Noon on NewsRadio 630 WLAP), discussing the impact Anthony Davis had on the Louisville offense and how much we appreciate Darius Miller for persevering through the Billy Gillispie year to eventually lead two Kentucky teams to Final Fours. But we had plenty of time. It’s a three-hour show.

You know what’s not a three-hour show? The FOX News break that plays at the top of each hour of Sunday Morning Sports Talk. It’s about two and a half minutes long. You know what it talked about? Police in riot gear, pepper spray, burning couches and injuries. Well done, Lexington. Well done.

An e-mailer to the show today said that this is what happens when you mix immaturity with alcohol. Well, let me tell you, I have ample experience with both immaturity and alcohol and I’ve never set anything on fire or destroyed a car (at least in celebration. I’m an awful driver. I’ve beat up my fair share of cars that way, for sure). It’s something else. It’s the complete lack of respect for anything or anybody other than themselves that so many carry around with them.

In a very real way, the “fans” that took to State Street and other parts of downtown have stolen a moment from the people who actually play and coach the game. Last night’s outrageousness took precious seconds away from that newscast, from SportsCenter, from every news outlet in the country – seconds that could have been used to talk about the exploits of one of the best teams we’ve ever had the privilege of seeing in Lexington – and focused them on the lawlessness of morons.

Hey rioters – because you’re not fans; if you were fans you would WANT the focus to be on the players – what in God’s name gives you the right to tarnish this moment, this run to a potential eighth championship for the players and coaches who earned it?

The worst part is that there is no way these fools have learned their lessons,  absolutely no chance that they will have the decency to stay in their crappy, couchless houses and avoid taking the focus off of the team’s accomplishment should they win the title on Monday. People willing to destroy cars, set fires and dance like a stripper in front off a fire hose (I’m sure all their parents are SO very proud), rarely see the error of their ways.

Here’s hoping that a late Monday night instead of an early Saturday evening game changes things in Lexington should UK win. Or maybe we’ll all catch a break and everybody involved in Saturday’s embarrassing “festivities” are all still in jail.