Hello Lobby Observer Obervers. My name is Brendan Black and I will be blogging about different sports throughout the seasons, but enough about me, let’s get to the sports. I’ve been rather bothered about football related events lately. First on my list is Homecoming. For all of those who were at this game, you know the outcome was less than what we hoped for. Don’t think I am taking a shot at our Rangers, but St John’s is Massachusetts’ power house and not many teams have the ability to play with them, let alone beat them. So that brings up the issue of, why play them on Homecoming?
Homecoming 2009 was one of the best games the Rangers had last season. They played a hard game and won in a dramatic fashion when senior quarterback Eric Thomas threw a dart to senior wide receiver Kyle Bancroft for the would-be game winning touchdown. The crowd went nuts and the highlight was one to be envied by any football player. Homecoming 2010 didn’t go as well. The St. John’s Pioneers came in and did what they have done to any other public school they have played so far: rolled over them. Am I the only one that thinks scheduling one of, if not the, best team in Massachusetts for a Homecoming game is a poor decision? Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Rangers are a good football team, but we’re talking about St. Johns. The same St. Johns that has the (according the Rivals.com) twelfth best player of his postion in the nation, Richard Rodgers, and also has multiple D1 -D3 committed players. The same St. Johns that steam rolled their way through last year and won the Super Bowl, but only with older and better players. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
My second and final issue that angers me is the debate over tailgating. As most know, Owen Ernest and myself, self proclaimed super fans, tried to organize a tailgate for before the Rangers football game at Foley Stadium this Friday. Once administration heard about this, I was pulled aside and told that we could not do this. Now let’s all go back to last Saturday, our Homecoming. On this day, the St. John’s fans had tents, grills, and chairs all set up in our upper parking lot. Tents? Grills? Chairs? Sounds like a tailgate… Now this had made many, including myself, very angry that even though other fans tailgated at our home field, we can’t tailgate at Foley Stadium. But what everyone needs to understand is that this is NOT our administration’s choice. Last week multiple students tailgating at Foley stadium were arrested by the local police. Those who had tailgated at our field, were not given permission, nor were they actually allowed. I know it doesn’t seem fair, but that’s what happened and we cannot do anything about it. Owen recently had a conversation with Coach Ellis, and he said that in the upcoming games, if we contact the schools that we are playing, and ask them if we can tail gate, then we will have all the permission we need. But until then, there is no tailgate this Friday. But still come out and support the Rangers as they look to bounce back and beat Doherty under the lights.
