Courtesy of Warchant.com
UPDATE: This has been picked up by Sports Illustrated, via Andy Staples, and The Sporting News, via Chris Littman. Also, Branch has issued a response: “For everyone who don’t know I didnt eye gauge the player from Florida State, let’s get that cleared up I was just caught up in the moment pulled his helmet and facemask my hand never went into the facemask for everyone that wants to no the truth.”
At least he nailed the correct form of “know” to use at the end there. And “don’t.” And he has a grasp on run-on sentences too. So I totally believe what he’s saying.
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The image you see above is something that has been discussed in the sports world all too much in the last week and a half, ever since Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes attacked the eyes of Georgia running back Washaun Ealey.
But if you take a look at that picture, the attacker doesn’t seem to resemble Spikes, it actually looks like a Clemson player assaulting a Florida State player.
That’s because it is. For such a common bottom-of-the-pile move, the eye gouge has suddenly made its way up the pile and is now the move of choice for some players no matter where they happen to perform the act.
Obviously, if you’ve ever seen any tabloid, you know that a picture doesn’t always tell the whole story and a still image can sometimes be misleading.
OK, then maybe we can just let the video do the talking. Keep an eye on the middle of the screen and you will see the act being performed.
The play occurred with 11:09 left to play in the second quarter of the Seminoles’ game last weekend at Clemson. At the time, Florida State held a 17-6 lead, and for those of you who watched the game, there was a feeling of helplessness growing on the Clemson sideline and the fans had “that look” on their faces, as if they knew what was about to happen.
The Tigers, who controlled their own destiny, were beginning to let it slip away, as they have in many Novembers past. The FSU Defense had played uncharacteristically consistent to that point, and they were actually hinting at solving the Clemson offense and shutting them down.
So something had to be done. And Clemson’s Andre Branch wasn’t about to let his season and chances at an ACC Championship slip away.
So he grabbed the first thing he could find while both teams scrambled for a Chris Thompson fumble, which of course was David Spurlock’s facemask, and then his eyes.
From the looks of the video, it is a more violent attack than the one Spikes put on Ealey a week before.
At this point in the week, the video and pictures are just being released. I admit that I hadn’t seen the eye gouge on television, but I saw the video earlier this afternoon and the picture was also posted today on Warchant.com. This has become a hot issue this evening, as Seminole fans are eager to spread the video, and understandably so, as Spurlock is one of our best offensive linemen and we can’t afford to have him go, oh I don’t know, blind.
I expect that in another 24 hours, the video will likely reach the sports networks and the issue of eye gouging will jump back onto the front burner as it did a week ago with Spikes. I also think that this issue is going to become a serious topic in the NCAA, and we will possibly see minimum suspensions in the 2010 season for anyone caught gouging the eyes of an opposing player.
I know I am going to take heat from Clemson fans for writing this, but please believe that I will blow the whistle if a Seminole were to hold an opposing player down and attempt to do this at any point. It happens at the bottom of piles, I get that. But turning a guy sideways and doing it in the middle of the field, with the pile five yards away is hard to even believe.
Suspend this punk thug, Dabo Swinney. Prove that you’re the great person the Clemson fanbase says you are, and do the right thing.
