There's a great scene in the sci-fi television show where the ship's pilot, Wash, is explaining an odd tradition on a planet he had visited: "They juggled geese. My hand to God! Goslings. Baby geese. They were juggled."
Lots of places have odd traditions. Turns out that Texas Tech has - or had - a tradition of throwing tortillas at football games. Now, I'm famous for my lack of knowledge of sportsball, but I admit I can't see what purpose throwing tortillas might serve; and now the school is banning the practice, as it seems throwing foreign (hah) objects onto the field can be hazardous.
How hazardous can a tortilla be?
Texas Tech is banning the throwing of tortillas by fans on kickoffs after the 14th-ranked Red Raiders were penalized twice and fined for objects being thrown onto the field in their most recent home game.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt said Monday fans entering the stadium would be instructed to discard tortillas, and there would be reminders before kickoff for anyone who took tortillas in to give them to stadium workers in order for them to be thrown away.
Anyone caught throwing tortillas would have their ticket privileges revoked from the rest of the academic year across all sports, Hocutt said.
The announcement came a little more than a week after the Red Raiders were given two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties after kickoffs in a 42-17 win over Kansas. Oklahoma State visits Saturday.
One wonders if this practice originated as some kind of protest, a sort of flour power thing. I mean, people can really get wrapped up in protesting something that they'd probably be better off just sitting down to taco about it. It's just a weird queso human expression.
Athletic Director Hocutt took ownership of the whole corny thing.
“The situation is on me,” Hocutt said. “I leaned into this, of throwing tortillas, at the beginning of the football season. Now I must ask everyone to stop, and I must ask our staff to enforce this on game days.”
You have to brielieve that this is a man of principle; he's admitting that he misjudged the impact of this chedderfully amusing yet ill-advised practice.
Turns out, as well, that tortilla-tossing can be costly.
“The moment that we sit in today is one that Red Raiders have dreamed about for a long, long time,” Hocutt said. “So simply, we cannot risk letting our actions penalize our football team. The stakes are too high, and we need to help, not risk penalizing our team again for throwing tortillas.”
The Big 12 fined Texas Tech $25,000 for throwing tortillas against the Jayhawks, and Kansas was fined the same amount for coach Lance Leipold’s false accusation after the game that a pocketknife was thrown from the stands.
Seems like these people have a good-sized chip on their shoulder. Someone should tell them, it's nacho problem.
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So, now more tortilla-tossing at Texas Tech. At least, in Texas, they generally don't have to worry about the weather being chile.
Try the veal. I'll be here all week.
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