Congratulations to the UTSA Roadrunners for winning their first-ever football game. Now please inform your fans that storming the field afterward is maybe not such a hot idea.
The arrests of a small group of University of Texas at San Antonio football fans who were among hundreds of others that rushed the game field after Saturday’s historic victory has sparked a campus controversy and stoked calls for police to drop the charges.
The game, which marked UTSA’s inaugural match and drew an NCAA record-breaking 56, 743 people to the Alamodome, was free of disruption until the moments after the home team clinched a 31-3 win over Oklahoma’s Northeastern State Riverhawks.
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“We’re not saying the police department did anything excessive or weren’t following protocol,” said Derek Trimm, who served as the university’s student body president last year. “It’s just we would like to see a different type of solution than to tackle the students and put them in prison.”
San Antonio Police Department spokesman Chris Benavides said he had not yet reviewed the reports, but said officers were acting in the interest of safety.
“I can tell you we don’t single any one individual out,” he said. “If there were arrests, it’s because the officers felt there was probable cause for them to make the arrests.”
Normally, rushing onto the field after a big win is a time-honored tradition. I’ve seen my share of such celebrations at Rice Stadium over the years. It’s just that usually the field in question is in a stadium owned by the school that just won the game, and is located on their campus. When the stadium is owned by someone else, and the security is being provided by non-campus police, well, discretion is the better part of celebratory hijinks. The good news for those who were arrested is that the Bexar County DA has decided to go easy on them. One hopes this will be all straightened out by the time they win their next home game.