Sticks and Stone May Not Break Your Bones, but Batteries Will
CLEMSON — There is an old adage that says, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
According to Clemson offensive lineman Sean Pollard, one fan of the Tigers' rival, the South Carolina Gamecocks, tried to use words to hurt his feelings — instead all it drew from Pollard was a chuckle.
"I remember this one woman (in pregame), she yells out, 'Orange isn't a flattering color,' Pollard said. "And I am thinking, I'm 315, wearing a tight shirt-ain't nothing flattering about me."
While fans, on both sides of the rivalry, enjoy a good verbal chastising of their rival, there is one thing that the Tigers are hoping the fans in Columbia do not repeat — throwing bottles and other items on the field at the players.
Two years ago, the fans from South Carolina threw water bottles, coke bottles and even C and D batteries were thrown — the latter of which actually hit this reporter.
“I think that was the year that some Coca-Cola bottles were thrown,” offensive lineman Matt Bockhorst said. “It’s kind of crazy though because it seems as if some of the fans have more hatred toward one another than some of the players."
A pattern of behavior that continued this season when the Gamecocks game against Florida featured a series of calls by officials that the fan base saw as questionable.
“I think they were cracking down on it. But we’ll see how their officials and their university officials and all that take care of that,” Gage Cervenka said. “But I’m not worried about it. A bottle can’t hurt me in a game, so I’m just worried about between the plays, just blocking the guy in front of me. That’s all I’m worried about.”
According to senior safety Tanner Muse, whose brother is a tight end for the Gamecocks, the fans that throw items on the field and at the players do not represent the majority of the fans.
“I just thought it was not the best thing for the stadium and for the fans,” Muse said. “I know that not all of their fans are like that. There are a lot of good people from that area. You can’t let one bad egg ruin the whole batch, so you just move on.
“You accept that things happen, but at the end of the day there are a lot of good people there. So, we are looking forward to being in that atmosphere and hopefully nothing is on the field.”
Maybe, just maybe, things would be better between the two sides if the fans took the same approach as the players — respecting each other.
“A lot of the players, especially at the bigger schools we were recruited together so we know each other well and there’s a mutual respect," Bockhorst said. "We all grind. We all work basically all year and some teams have obviously found more success, but a lot of teams go through very similar schedules. The mutual respect between players is something I think it would be nice to see between fan bases.”
