By now, there’s not a soul in this country that has no idea about what happened at Virginia Tech. It’s a tragedy, plain and simple, and something that never deserved to happen to anyone at anytime. Actually, “tragedy” is an understatement.

Generally, I hate the media. You would think that from taking many classes on how to survive in it and manipulate it, to having worked in it for a full year, I would have a slight defense for what I’ve seen splattered across the news the past couple of weeks. However, I have no defense for what has become many reporters’ wet dream. In the post-Imus era, it’s becoming more and more apparent to me that the media has too much power and they’re not using it for the intended purpose. Piles and piles of satellites, camera men, and tanned individuals descended upon Blacksburg to catch a glimpse of a grieving man or woman, and to tell the story of a twisted son of a bitch.

I would rant further, but that’s not the intention of this post. I just wanted to point out where the media has gone wrong, and where schools across the nation have picked up the slack.

PWD posted two articles earlier where Big 10 schools OSU and Penn State formed their own tributes to Virginia Tech out of the classiness of their character and not because it would generate higher ratings. While NBC was busy jerking off over a mailed in tape, young but very mature adults were organizing their own show of support on days where their pride was only supposed to be for the home team.

Paul, I apologize for blatantly taking these photographs from your blog and using them for my own post, but I felt it well worth sharing just in case the person exists out there who reads mine but skims yours (we all know this person is a myth, but humor me for a moment). Everyone, please see below for what has to be one of the classiest acts I’ve ever seen from a group of people.

You see, this is what it’s all about. And when I say “it’s” I mean college football. It’s a sense of pride, gathering, community, and the ability to remember that off of the football field, we all bleed red and breathe oxygen. We’re all connected to what happened to our friends up north. To see this unselfish show of support for people they’ve never met really makes me feel good about why I love this sport and community so much.

I spend a lot of time talking about how much I hate Georgia Tech, Florida, Auburn, blah blah blah. The truth is; that generally only includes sports. Other than that, they’re pretty good people (albeit the Tech ones are a bit nerdy). I think we can all agree on that.

I’m not trying to say anything profound or earth shattering. I just wanted to point out something that made my day a little better. Something that made me sit back and take notice of how many good people there still are in this world, regardless of how the media portrays it.

I just hope you read this and it made your day a little bit better just like it did mine.

Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Labels: College Football