No pictures, no YouTube (yet) as this is live television folks. Texas was leading Arizona State 21-0 after the first quarter in tonight's Holiday Bowl, then things got interesting.After marching deep into Texas territory, ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter appeared to lateral the ball backwards as he was about to get sacked. Texas' defense pursued the loose ball as it neared the Longhorn sidelines then everything went to hell.
The Longhorns recovered the ball after some bobbles, but replay appeared to show a Texas staff member on the field barely touching the ball. Replay officials re-examined the play and determined that it had been a touch and returned the ball to ASU and flagged Texas for unsportsmanlike conduct. ASU immediately scored a 7-yard touchdown pass to bring the game to 21-7 and re-introduce them into what had been a Texas blowout.
Ever since, ESPN has been showing shot after shot of the staffer looking miserable on the sidelines. Credit to Kirk Herbstreit for bringing up the Steve Bartman example as ESPN cannot look away from the guy. Personally I watched the replay and it's hard to see where he touched the ball. He came darn close but appears to have just gotten his hand back as the ball skirted by him. Replay officials better be darn sure that he did in fact touch it because that has completely changed the complexion of this game.
Update: ESPN is now informing us that the staffer's name is Chris Jesse and he is Mack Brown's stepson.
Update: Image via referring thread (thanks) at FreeRepublic.com
Update: One more image (below). Someone get that puppy up on YouTube already!
Update: VIDEO after the jump (many thanks to Awful Announcing)
ADVERTISEMENT
_thumbnail.jpg "NASCAR Cowboy Hats")
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. This was a bonehead act of historical proportion. I'm guessing that Mack Brown may be asking Chris to remain in the locker room after the half.
Posted at 9:45PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Randy
2. "What To Get Away?!" - southwest.com
Posted at 9:50PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Southwest Airlines
3. a good example of the little control Brown has over that team. Jailbirds, felons, thugs, and now just stupid.
Posted at 10:06PM on Dec 27th 2007 by John Doe
4. Say he doesn't touch the ball. What about all the coaches and players that were on the field? That has got to be some sort of penalty.
Posted at 10:09PM on Dec 27th 2007 by BlueGuy
5. That is so incredibly awesome. I'm speechless. Brown's step-son?
Posted at 10:45PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Jason
6. 5 minutes BG....I'll send the video.
Posted at 10:51PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Awful Announcing
7. Great! Thanks Awful Announcing.
Posted at 10:56PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Brian Grummell
8. He didn't touch the ball...this game should be 35-0 at half. Texas is waaay better than ASU. ASU,(the Pac 10 co-champion?) is slow and has a terrible O Line, and would have a hard time going 6-6 in the Big 12.
Posted at 10:58PM on Dec 27th 2007 by ventures360
9. Bowl games don't really show how a team performed in the regular season. Arizona is showing that they are not motivated and thought they should had a better bowl than this. Poor coaching does that. Texas is playing well, but they lost to A&M who was really awful this year. Big 12 was better than the Big 10, but that is not saying much. Pac 10 just fell apart and Arizona is not representing well at all. Looks like the SEC was just a step above, a giant step. I hate the SEC, but they showed up.
Posted at 11:12PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Gary Kaufman
10. Texas will win so it WILL NOT MATTER.
Posted at 11:14PM on Dec 27th 2007 by aaorn W
11. Here you go folks.....enjoy! Absolutely crazy. I had to splice it up a bit and will have a full 5 minute one on the site soon....
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qZOjja6KY-Q
Posted at 11:15PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Awful Announcing
12. No. 2 -- The slogan is: "Want to get away?" But we won't assume that you're as stupid as you seem.
Posted at 11:57PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Matt
13. I'm a Wildcat fan and it tickles the crap out of me that two former Arizona Wildcat coaches (Duanne Akina and Larry McDuff) are leading the way to a serious ass whipping of ASU. What's even more fitting is the trash talking Rudy Carpenter pussed out and won't finish the game. And for those two fans who talked so much trash at the UofA - ASU game that got kicked out you two can go fly a kite because you suck! One last thing RUDEE - RUDEE - RUDEE.
Posted at 12:06AM on Dec 28th 2007 by Doug
14. I don't think he touched the ball, but Texas was asking for a penalty with half of their staff out on the field. Still not quite sure I understood the officiating, though. It seemed like the ref was making up the rules as he went along.
Posted at 12:21AM on Dec 28th 2007 by Gamecock Man
15. Whether he touched the ball or not is irrelevant - the penalty is for being on the field.
ASU, and especially Carpenter looked terrible. I will be very surprised and disappointed if Rudy starts over Sullivan next year!
Posted at 12:52AM on Dec 28th 2007 by opedoped
16. The "Rudy" chant was hysterical. I've never seen a team so riled up over one player like that. Carpenter must have been talking some serious smack to deserve the hellacious beatdown we witnessed tonight.
Posted at 12:56AM on Dec 28th 2007 by Don
17. I watched that game and was disgusted by how much the officials let Mack Brown and the Texas staff get away with. They had already been warned once about a sideline violation, but they repeatedly ran out onto the field every time Texas made a big play, on either offense or defense. Whether his son touched the ball or not, he should have been given a penalty for being out on the playing surface and involved in a live ball situation. You could see the ref trying to run around the coaches and staff attempting to get close enough to make a call. Mack Brown played those officials perfectly by going into his "psycho coach" act (I HOPE it's an act) every time a call went against his team. They were afraid of what he might do if they threw that second flag.
Posted at 10:10AM on Dec 28th 2007 by Bill Lucas
18. how does this matter now? if they lost we would be talking about this all bowl season. now nobody cares.
Posted at 11:29AM on Dec 28th 2007 by MICHAEL
19. he didn't touch the ball but the moron shouldn't have been on the field, what a bartman move
Posted at 12:40PM on Dec 28th 2007 by kcm378
20. Whether the young man touched the ball or not doesn't really matter -- the video shows how many Texas people were on the field during a live play, and how far out on the field they were. I think refs have to uniformly and repeatedly penalize teams when the coaches are on the field. It has become increasingly a problem in every game I watch.
Posted at 6:15PM on Dec 29th 2007 by Kevin Gross