I may be alone in thinking that the “let’s be like Oregon and have a different themed uniform every week” fad is ruining college football. And America. I think we can all agree that this is ridiculous though. Eastern Michigan University has unveiled election themed helmets for their Tuesday night game against Ball State.
Can we just not do things like this? To paraphrase Hank Hill, “You’re not making politics better. You’re just making football worse.”
.@EMUFB To Ring In Election Night With Patriotic Helmet Design – find out more at https://t.co/0m2Tp4a1kW // #EMUFB #VOTE #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/KcDdNjEyKV
— Eastern Michigan Athletics (@EMUAthletics) November 3, 2016
Being patriotic is fine but wrapping the 2016 election in the flag is like watching “Idiocracy” and still being able to laugh without also crying a little.
An EMU press release announced the special election night helmet.
The Eastern Michigan University football program is preparing for a prime time and Election Night football game of historic proportions when the Eagles travel to Ball State University Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Scheumann Stadium. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m.
In the political world, the night will be about red and blue states, but on the field the Eagles will do their best to honor the election of the United States of America’s 45th President. Eastern Michigan will wear its white helmet that will be adorned with a patriotic inspired Block E design.
In addition, the nose bumper on the front of the helmet will be the word VOTE with the last letter in vote being the department’s primary Block E logo. Completing the look will be a center helmet stripe that lists the last name of each of the previous 44 US Presidents.
I’m not sure who the “VOTE” message above the facemask is intended for. The game does not start until 7:00 PM in Muncie, Indiana where the polls will already be closed. There might be time in Michigan for people to get to their polling places under the wire, but any die hard fan who has gone to the trouble of finding the CBS video feed of this game amidst wall to wall election punditry probably isn’t interested in choosing the form of the destructor.
If you live on the west coast or in Hawaii and you forgot to vote because you were too stoked for an EMU at Ball State matchup you can only see with a pirate satellite dish, then you probably need some professional help.
In all seriousness though, why do we insist on blurring the lines between politics and entertainment? Can’t we leave some things untainted? There should be some things to which we can turn to get away from the horror show.
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