With "ESPN GameDay" heading to Sun Devil Stadium Saturday, football fever is in the air.
The student section will be a sea of gold, eager to cheer for the Devils. Over the next few days, while considering the action on the field and praying for a Trojan downfall, let's also consider the appropriate student response to a potential ASU victory.
Having been in the front row of the band section for the Sun Devils' 44-7 demolition of Iowa last year, I was privy to a front-row view of the mayhem following the game. Our student section, in its traditional drunken stupor, rushed the field to exult in the team's victory.
While the enthusiasm was commendable, there must be an alternative to trampling people out of jubilant revelry. Having witnessed girls being half-swallowed by the mob last year and the graveyard of flip-flops littering the field afterward, I know an alternative must be pursued -- tortilla throwing.
Let me explain why these floury circles are a better choice for celebrating.
Let's start with a little tortilla-chucking history. Rooster Bowl history indicates that Texas Tech students have allegedly been hurling tortillas since 1993 in a rebellious response to the Texas A&M quarterback's derision of Tech as "good for nothing but making tortillas."
And ASU's student section has a long-standing tradition of sneaking tortillas past security guards. The Athletic Department's long-time ban of tortillas is MIA from the regulations this year, an act or oversight we should choose to interpret as an invitation to resume our tortilla-flinging fetish.
Now that you've got the background, let's focus on why the student section should arm themselves with tortillas rather than store up their energy for a post-game field rush.
Firstly, throwing tortillas toward the field surely comes with much less severe consequences than those for rushing the field. Think about it -- you could get a figurative slap on the wrist from ASU's security guards, or you could be electrically shocked by a Taser gun. Tough choice.
Secondly, we should do it because UA can't. Tortilla-throwing used to be a bit of a Tucson tradition for graduation ceremonies.
In 2003, UA President Peter Likins resorted to crying racism in an attempt to prevent the floury discs from potentially hitting the graduation speakers, Gov. Janet Napolitano and Sen. Jon Kyl. Likins claimed the tradition would be "disrespectful to Hispanic and American Indian community members," despite Hispanic students' participation in the tradition.
If UA students can't throw tortillas, there's really no better reason why ASU students should.
Lastly, throwing tortillas at a football game is surely a safer alternative to throwing them at a gator. CBS news reported this past August that volunteers for the Parks and Recreation department in Los Angeles were attempting to catch a man-sized alligator that had been roaming free in a L.A. County lake for two weeks.
Their method of entrapment was -- I am not making this up -- tortilla throwing. Tim Williams, head of a Gatorland team, took over for Parks and Recreation after the gator avoided the tortilla lures. Williams feared the animal was "spooked" because the volunteers "were throwing tortillas and jelly doughnuts at him."
So when you're cheering the Devils to victory on Saturday, practice your tortilla-tossing technique. It may not help you catch a gator, but it's a safer alternative to rushing the field.
Laura Thorson is a history and political science junior. Reach her at laura.thorson@cox.net.
