It is official policy at Scott Stadium that alcoholic beverages, coolers, bottled water, food, strollers and umbrellas must remain outside the gates. After Saturday's football game against Duke, First Amendment rights may as well be added to the list.
During the third quarter of Virginia's scorcher of a match against the Blue Devils, and after the Cavalier defense had just allowed one of the worst teams in the country to pull within four points of tying the game, third-year Engineering student David Becker silently stood up in the first row of the student section and held up a sign. In big letters, it read, "Fire Groh." No more, no less.
The sign itself echoed an opinion that has been floating around Grounds all year, one that was splashed across Beta Bridge, printed on T-shirts and screamed from the upper deck during some of Virginia's worst football moments in recent memory. Yet for some reason, Becker's message was one event staff were not prepared to tolerate.
Immediately after unfurling the sign, Becker was approached by a field staffer who confiscated it under orders from the athletic department. When Becker told him the sign had been approved by staff at the gate, the official gave no response. So Becker made another one using scraps of poster board and a marker. After that got taken away, he made another. That too was confiscated. Each sign Becker made was taken until police gave him an ultimatum: Keep the signs down or get out.
"I wanted to show my feelings and the feelings of others," Becker said. "I wasn't causing any problems. I love the team. I'm always the first one there for football and basketball games, but when you have a coach who's not performing up to expectations, you want people to know. You should be able to hold up a sign."
When asked to comment, Jason Bauman, associate director of athletics for facilities and operations, said the move was consistent with venue policy restricting "derogatory" signs.
As a student, a sportswriter and a fan, Becker's story is extremely disturbing to me for three reasons.
The first hinges on the kind of fan Becker was. He was dedicated, getting to the stadium early enough to secure a prime seat as he has for virtually every football game. He was not a troublemaker, refraining from taunting or otherwise disturbing players or other fans. He was also responsible, checking the sign's content with gate staff who told students that any non-vulgar messages about Groh were acceptable.
In short, Becker was the kind of fan the athletic department should embrace. Instead, the department refused to explain why he wasn't allowed to state his opinion the way thousands of fans do every year. (Think about Michigan fans who are currently suffering through their team's 0-2 start.) Dissent is healthy, as I'm sure Thomas Jefferson would tell you if he actually knew what a football looked like.
Secondly, this story highlights an instance in which the athletic department got its priorities woefully mixed up. In an era of television audiences, sky boxes, endorsement contracts and millionaire coaches, schools can lose sight of who games are really for: the students.
This can make student fans feel like second-class citizens on their own Grounds come game day. With their peers on the field bringing in truckloads of money for the athletic department, it's disappointing to see the University swoop down like Big Brother and crush student expression as if it's a minor irritant.
"I understand fans," Groh famously said last fall to the media. "I don't think fans understand coaches. I fly on a lot of airplanes. Just because I fly on airplanes doesn't qualify me to be a pilot."
Maybe students don't know how to fly the plane, Al, but they sure know what a crash landing feels like. The athletic department should be surprised students waited until the second game to pull out the "Fire Groh" signs.
Thirdly, it's not clear whether the athletic department had an actual reason for pulling the sign at all. Was it because it would have looked bad to have an anti-Groh sign in the front row of a televised game? I'd say most people familiar with Virginia football would think it was strange not to see at least one sign like that.
Was it because the department feared it would demoralize the team or offend Groh himself? I think it's a simple matter of opinion whether you feel players would be better off under a different coach. And as for Groh, he's shown over the years he couldn't care less about what students think.
In the end, Becker's experience wasn't just the result of a rogue event staffer overreacting. It was a deliberate effort by the athletic department to keep a certain sign with a certain message out of the stands. Though this would be fine if the sign was vulgar or otherwise tasteless, the fact remains that it wasn't.
Was the athletic department wrong in doing this? All I know is that by the time you read this, I'll be loading up on plenty of Sharpies and posterboard for Virginia's next home game against Georgia Tech.
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