Come On!

I'm all for college pranks. I've made Stanford fountains blue during Big Game week. Pranks more than crimes. Harmless stuff that brings a few giggles. The back and forth between college rivals is part of what makes college football great. The traditions and even the traditional pranks. I even find the more adventurous pranks funny. Pranks that technically border, or eclipse, the criminal. Some of the stories of the stealing of the Stanford Axe, the Cal-Stanford Big Game trophy, are incredible. It doesn't happen often but when it does it's beautiful. Stealing mascots, as long as the live mascots are not injured, is often hilarious. It's all fun and games. It's all part of college football.

Some fans go way too far. Having fun with college traditions is one thing. Destroying them is another. One of the worst stunts was when dipshit Alabama fan Harvey Updyke poisoned the beautiful oak trees at Auburn's Toomer's Corner. This supposed college football fan destroyed something wonderful. He destroyed a place sacred to Auburn people and the tradition that went with it. Aubrun hopes to have the trees replaced by the 2014 football season but it may never be the same again. Last week, Howard's Rock at Clemson was damaged forever. Howard's Rock, named for Hall of Fame coach Frank Howard, sits on a hill above Memorial Stadium, affectionately known as Death Valley. Clemson football players have rubbed it before taking the field for every home game since 1966. The stone was brought to the school from Death Valley, CA by a Tigers alum. It's been a tradition ever since. According to reports, on June 2nd or 3rd vandals removed the Plexiglass casing around the stone and broke off a chunk of it. The pedestal that the stone sets on was not damaged and the case has been replaced, but the piece of stone is missing. It's not the first attack on Howard's Rock. In 1992, the week leading up to the South Carolina game vandals tried to remove the rock from it's pedestal and they took off a piece of it on the left side. In 2004, an opponent's team manager tried to vandalize the rock during a walk through before a game, but he was stopped. Idiots are taking apart another terrific college tradition one piece of rock at a time. Clemson players of future teams may be touching only a pebble on the way to the field. Very sad.

I don't get it. I don't see the bang in simply destroying something. This idiot Updyke didn't just poison some trees he poisoned the Alabama-Auburn rivalry and tradition. He wasn't being heroic to the Tide cause. He was being an asshole. Some may see my enjoyment over putting environmentally friendly, blue dye in a Stanford fountain as crossing the line. After all, someone has to drain that fountain because of my little prank. I'd gladly return to Stanford to clean up my mess. After the game, of course. I draw the line at the destruction of the very thing that we are all trying to celebrate. The college football games. The rivalries and the traditions.