[ALUmnus]

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf ... xml&coll=1

"This is how you treat people who may die for this country?" said Bill Squires, an Annapolis graduate (Class of'75) who was on the sidelines for the Friday night game in Piscataway and was shocked by the obscene chants directed at the Navy players and fans throughout the game. "It was the most classless thing I've seen."

Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.

''F--- you, Navy. F---you, Navy. F--- you, Navy."

Considering the state of most college campuses today, it's sad that this doesn't surprise me. And I doubt that this crowd was just directing this at a football team, but the Navy itself.

[LUconn]

I'm gonna have to say this is 100% in relation to the sporting event at hand. We do it to VMI and they're pretend soldiers.

[SuperJon]

Just because they're Navy you can't say the stuff you normally would? You can thank these guys for being in the Navy after the game's over, but while the game's going on, who cares who they play for.

[ALUmnus]

Sorry, don't believe it. And yeah, there is a difference when you're playing certain institutions.

[SuperJon]

No. No there's not. We chant West Point Rejects every time we play VMI. I thank them for what they do after the game countless times, but in between those lines, they're just another school.

[LUconn]

what? They don't do anything.

[ALUmnus]

and I'm sure that makes it all better. Sorry, but to me there's a huge difference, a it's pretty shallow.

[thepostman]

you think they act any differently with any other school?? Of course not....stupid article....and I am a Navy brat and love the Navy

[bigred]

LUconn,

What do you mean pretend? You might want to check your history. VMI is and has been a Military school since 1839. It is older than the USNA and USAFA. I have known people who spent a year at VMI and then transferred to one of the "real" military schools and they say that the VMI experience is, with out a doubt, tougher. I wonder if the 10 men here http://new.vmi.edu/show.asp?durki=4338& ... &return=91 thought that VMI wasn't a military school, or any of the men who gave their lives in the first Gulf War, or Vietnam, or Korea, or WWI and WWII? I wonder what General George C. Marshall thought of his time at The Instititute?

I am sure that we could arrange for you to spend a little time at "The Mother I" and see what your thoughts are after we have broken you down and built you back up.

Just let us know if you have some time to play "pretend".

[JK37]

As a fan of a Big East school, who has seen Rutgers play many, many times, its disheartening to see the fans at Rutgers turn so quickly.

One of the worst experiences (and most memorable, for poor reasons) relating ot my life around college athletics, was up at Rutgers a few years back. Walking along with the team up the tunnell at Rutgers Stadium, there was a father, 2-year-old toddler in tow, yelling every obscenity in the book at the coaches as they came through.

I fully agree, SJ, that no matter the institution, between the sidelines, creative jeering is completely within the realm of the spirit of college athletics. I've loved y'all's "West Point Rejects" chants, and others. But the language being used by these Rutgers students is classless, reprehensible, and void of any place within sports. There's no justificaiton of it whatsoever.

It's just sad that now that they're among the nation's elite in college football, Rutgers students feel they have to act this way...

[PeterParker]

and I'm sure that makes it all better. Sorry, but to me there's a huge difference, a it's pretty shallow.

Gotta disagree with you here. 100% sports related taunting. The Rutgers taunts, while more crass than an LU approved taunt, are child's play to what goes on in the world of Army/Navy taunting at sporting events (and at the end of the game they are on the same side in battle.) Plus, even if a small contingent of those taunting have an extra insinuation of something more politically motivated in their taunt, they are simply ignorant, not necessarily for having a counterview, but for believing that anyone at the sporting event would even care or recognize their "dig" at the "man."

[ALUmnus]

I'm sorry, but I'll always see a difference. To me, there's a difference between taunting Jonathon Ogden for his toe injury and taunting Kevin Everett. But they're both between the lines. What the heck does that matter? You don't start cursing at a group of uniformed military personell because your team is playing theirs, it's disrespectful to the nth degree.

[scuzdriver]

I just hope the LU fans show more class.

[PAmedic]

I'm sorry, but I'll always see a difference. To me, there's a difference between taunting Jonathon Ogden for his toe injury and taunting Kevin Everett. But they're both between the lines. What the heck does that matter? You don't start cursing at a group of uniformed military personell because your team is playing theirs, it's disrespectful to the nth degree.

you may want to avoid the football games between the FDNY Bravest and Philly Blue Flame then (NPFSL)

these guys would love to kill each other.

http://www.bravestfootball.com/index.html
http://www.blueflamefootball.com/index.shtml

[FlameDad]

VMI plays a couple of games at Lahaye this hockey season.
SJ will shout his usual "West Point Rejects" crap from the safety of the opposite side of the glass.......

[SuperJon]

Or I'll chant it from the front row of the Vines or the front row of Williams Stadium.

What happens during the game is during the game. Before and after the game, I say "yes sir" to every VMI-associated person I come in contact with whether it be an alum or current cadet. I have nothing but respect for that school, but I'm going to taunt them just like I would any other school while the game is going on. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want fans to take it easy on them because of who they are, and they're definitely not going to clean their language up simply because we're a Christian school.

[Realist]

Ok, I'll say it, why should VMI get respect? I agree with whoever said the "pretend" military school b/c they don't have a military obligation to fulfill after they graduate, from what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong. I could care less about the generals born three generations ago that are alumni, the students I've seen seem to be really nerdy kids who need to meet a few women so they'll calm down a little bit. Out of all the schools that have visited Winthrop, I've seen the worst behavior from the keydets, shouting curse words, making obcene gestures towards women, etc.

As for the VMI alum on here, don't give me this "it'll make you a real man" stuff. What a stupid mentality. Yeah, most of us really want to go to a school to get yelled at and with no women. That doesn't make you a real man, it makes you stupid, or at the very least, someone with some sort of weird masochistic or homoerotic tendencies.

[Schfourteenteen]

As a fan of a Big East school, who has seen Rutgers play many, many times, its disheartening to see the fans at Rutgers turn so quickly.

One of the worst experiences (and most memorable, for poor reasons) relating ot my life around college athletics, was up at Rutgers a few years back. Walking along with the team up the tunnell at Rutgers Stadium, there was a father, 2-year-old toddler in tow, yelling every obscenity in the book at the coaches as they came through.

Ummmmmm
New Jersey is much different than here.
That's how we are.
Doesnt matter if you are Navy or the Dallas Cowboys, we just hate everything and have great mouths to prove it.
Not that I am saying youre being over-sensitive, because youre not. Its just thats how we are at games.

[bigsmooth]

i will agree with SJ on this, but i will say realist you went way overboard with the homo stuff. i have the ulimate respect for anyone who attends/graduated from VMI. it is tough and if you want a disciplined environment and a very good job out of college, VMI is a good choice. i do not know of any VMI graduate that does not have an excellent career. the name opens doors. i do find it crazy that "rutgers" was doing this, knowing that for most of the history of their program they have been a whipping boy of others.

[PAmedic]

Ummmmmm
New Jersey is much different than here.
That's how we are.
Doesnt matter if you are Navy or the Dallas Cowboys, we just hate everything and have great mouths to prove it.
Not that I am saying youre being over-sensitive, because youre not. Its just thats how we are at games.

never a truer word spoken.

Jersey is different alright. Big fat mouths and chicks with big hair and big fat something else(s)

"nothing good ever came outta Jersey"

PS: Philly fans got a battery with your name on it

PPS: your pizza is ok. And calzones, too

[blwall1416]

From the Rutgers President:



Letter to Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler
September 11, 2007

Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler
Superintendent
United States Naval Academy
121 Blake Road
Annapolis, Maryland 21402-5000

Dear Vice Admiral Fowler:

Let me offer my apologies on behalf of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for the disrespectful and disgraceful behavior exhibited by some of our fans at the Rutgers-Navy game last Friday. I was at the game but did not hear the offensive chants, which came from a relatively small number of fans, and I learned about them only later. What I witnessed was actually quite the opposite: a large number of Rutgers supporters standing to applaud the Navy players as they left the field at halftime.

No student-athlete should ever be subject to profane language directed at them from the crowd, and certainly not the young men of the Naval Academy who have made a commitment to serve our nation in a time of war. Your Midshipmen conducted themselves with dignity throughout the game and have my admiration.

You have my best wishes and, again, my apologies.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

[PAmedic]

Nice, but I stand by my previous comments re: Jersey

[bigred]

What does a mandatory military commitment have to do with anything Realist? Sounds to me like you might want to educate yourself a little more about history and the mission of the VMI. No one said that going to VMI makes you a real man, so why would you put that in quotes? There are plenty of jackasses at every school, VMI included...perhaps even more, but that again does not make anything about the military training at the Institute pretend. Believe me, there are just as many Dorks at the Academies...and even Winthrop.

[blwall1416]

Nice, but I stand by my previous comments re: Jersey

Someone said it is symbolically important to point out that even the Statue of Liberty has her back turned on Rutgers.

[RubberMallet]

its just football....navy knows that, rutgers knows that. noone is discounting what the navy has done for this country....is it crass? yes, but if you've gone to a navy vs ANYBODY game you should hear the things Navy says to everyone else....if F*** you (college name) was said it was the tamest of comments i heard....

after the game most of the other fans were shaking hands with their fellow military and thanking them heartily for their services....

its football.....


...just some retard looking for a story....