Badgers Cheerleaders Assaulted With Snowballs, Forced To Flee To Safety [Video]
Wisconsin Badgers cheerleaders were pelted with snowballs during Saturday’s game, resulting in an ugly fracas that forced the young men and women to take cover in a stadium tunnel, CBS Sports is reporting.
It had snowed all day throughout the area around Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, and when the Badgers took the field for Saturday’s game against Northwestern, the stands at the Badgers’ home field, Camp Randall Stadium, were covered with the white stuff.
Badgers fans, being college students and prone to bouts of rowdiness, took to making snowballs and throwing them at each other – at first. Perhaps they were frustrated; the Badgers were losing 7-0 at the time, near the end of the second quarter.
ESPN college football reporter Jesse Temple was at the scene.
Wisconsin’s student section is apparently bored enough by the game that there’s a snowball fight breaking out over there. #Entertainment
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 21, 2015
A few minutes later, Badgers fans began throwing their snowballs at the team’s cheerleaders.
Holy smokes. Students look like they’re now aiming all their snowballs at the UW cheerleaders behind the end zone. What’s wrong with people? — Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 21, 2015
Below is Temple’s video of the aftermath of the scene. At the top of the screen you can see the Badgers cheerleaders heading for safety in an stadium tunnel.
Wisconsin cheerleaders leaving the field after being pelted with snowballs by their own fans. pic.twitter.com/vyUJkj9TsB
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 21, 2015
While the students were pelting the cheerleaders with snowballs, the University of Wisconsin-Madison police also took to Twitter, this time warning against throwing snowballs at cheerleaders (or onto the field in general). Oddly enough, the tweet seems to suggest the police were willing to tolerate fans throwing snowballs, just not at cheerleaders.
C’mon students – we’d rather you not throw snowballs. But please do NOT throw at the field. If you’re caught, you will be cited and ejected. — UW-Madison Police (@UWMadisonPolice) November 21, 2015
It wasn’t just the Badgers cheerleaders who were the subject of the fans’ ire via snowballs: at least one reporter caught video of fans throwing snowballs at the refs.
Fans in the stands at the Northwestern-Wisconsin game throw snowballs at the referees. The Badgers… -via @ESPN App https://t.co/qNr9tnnere — Colleen White (@yrwol7) November 22, 2015
The behavior of the Badgers fans disgusted one reporter: Dead Spin writer Patrick Redford.
“Your team is hosting the #21 Northwestern Wildcats in a crucial late-season game. You’re understandably pumped and there’s snow on the ground. You should throw a snowball! But no Northwestern fans are in range. Should you throw it at the nearby cheerleaders? No of course not. That is rude as hell.”
The Badgers cheerleaders returned to the field for the second half, but this time, they chose the relative safety of the sidelines over the end zone.
The Badgers cheerleaders aren’t the only people on a football field to have ever been pelted by snowballs. Back on December 15, 1968, during one of the ugliest incidents in organized football history, Philadelphia Eagles fans booed a man dressed as Santa Claus, and then pelted him with snowballs.
In another ugly snowball incident, in a December 1995 game between the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers, fans began pelting players and officials with snowballs. At one point, stadium security was forced to leave the field, and the Giants’ public address announcer had to remind the crowd that they were in danger of forfeiting the game. One snowball struck a Chargers coach on the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. Warning: video below contains some strong language.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, their fans pelting their cheerleaders with snowballs didn’t seem to have helped the team: the Badgers lost the game, 13-7.
[Image via Shutterstock/Suzanne Tucker]
