In a fight towards the end of Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Championship, Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina, Kamilla Cardoso, South Carolina’s 6-foot-7 center, pushed Flau’jae Johnson, LSU’s 5-foot-10 guard. This prompted Trayron Milton, 24 years oldJohnson’s brother, to jump over the scorer’s table and onto the field, where he briefly made contact with Cardoso.
Milton seemed to assess the much taller Cardoso, realize he had made a terrible mistake, and back away. What if he hadn’t?
Milton seemed to assess the much taller Cardoso, realize he had made a terrible mistake, and back away. What if he hadn’t? Officials say Milton pushed an SEC employee and stepped on that person’s shoulders to get to court. Greenville Police Milton was convicted of battery and disorderly conducttwo misdemeanors. He was released from prison Monday after posting bail. Police say two other people came out of the stands and at the scorer’s table, but were unable to run on the floor.
This may sound alarmist, but it would also be naive not to think about it. Monica Seles, former tennis great, whose career was derailed in 1993 when a fan in Hamburg, Germany, stabbed her in the back while she sat in the change chair between matches. When someone who shouldn’t be there rushes onto a field, there’s no way of knowing who has bad intentions.
The same goes for the jubilant supporters who storm the field after a big, sometimes unexpected, victory. Both situations put players in danger.
This season alone we have seen fans rush results on the pitch. in a nearby injury For Caitlin Clark from Iowa – the most watched and most valuable player in all of college basketball – and in a knee injury for Duke center Kyle Filipowski, after Wake Forest fans stormed the field following their upset win over the Blue Devils. But that’s child’s play compared to what could happen: a serious injury, assault or accident that ends someone’s season. While attacks on courts are often dismissed as careless jokes or kids being kids, when 15,000 people rush onto a 94-by-50-foot field, something bad happening is inevitable.
While this season has given us new reasons to worry about safety and that of the players, there are stories of fans storming the field dating back to over 60 years old. But the phenomenon, now fueled by social media as fans want their Instagram antics to be published as soon as possible, has become de rigeur – almost a rite of passage – like never before.
This season alone, we’ve seen fans rush the court, leading to a near-injury to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark — the most watched and valuable player in all of college basketball — and an injury to her knee of Duke center Kyle Filipowski.
The field storming is supposed to happen after the home team upsets a higher-ranked opponent or defeats a rival. But with such parity in men’s and women’s college hoops, such upsets are much more common. So fans show up not only hoping against hope that their team will win, but also already prepared to storm the field if that is the case.
The dangers of legal assaults have led some prominent voices in academia to propose radical, even carceral, solutions: ESPN’s Jay Bilas, one of the most influential voices in these spaces, said on one of this week’s broadcasts. network last month that he wanted the judicial attackers to receive citations or be arrested. “Just say, ‘You’re all detained,’ and give them all the quotes, or arrest them if you want.” And then the legal assaults will stop the next day.”
The problem with this idea is that the sheer number of law enforcement it would take to accomplish this would turn every college stadium into an internment camp of arrests and detention. In the United States, more policing and surveillance seems to be our solution to everything. Just ask people on the New York subway.
Take former New York City Police Chief Terence “Terry” Monahan., who helped develop anti-assault policies at Yankee Stadium. Stopping him would be “very easy,” he told NBC News. “You make an announcement: ‘Hey, you’re under arrest, and if you’re a student, you could be suspended.’ All of a sudden, a consequence is felt on the ground. For now, there are no consequences: no one is saying you can’t do it.
Greg Byrne, University of Alabama athletic director has a different approach. After Duke Filipowski was injured, Byrne told the Birmingham Tip-Off Club: “I think the way it’s going to stop, it’ll make everyone realize that it’s dangerous, it’s… that the team local authority forfeits.” This would attract the attention of many students, but would it really stop the assault? And if that weren’t the case, could we really punish players – who may have just won the biggest game of their lives – by telling them they lost? This seems completely un-American.
There’s another suggestion floating around in the ether: Host schools — at great loss of profit and enjoyment — have a home game taken away from them in the event of an on-field assault. The question is whether fans who drink a few beers would care.
This response is irresponsible. The NCAA needs a uniform policy, and it needed one yesterday.
As for the NCAA, spokesman David Worlock told NBC News: “We do not have a policy regarding on-field assault. Policies are implemented and enforced at the conference and institutional level. This is not permitted during NCAA tournament games, and we work with host venues to develop a safety plan to try to prevent it. This response is irresponsible. The NCAA needs a uniform policy, and it needed one yesterday.
The only other solution that would not increase the prison population would be to prohibit fans who storm the field from attending another home game. If not forever, at least for this season. To do nothing, which is the NCAA’s position, is to invite tragedy. Acting before that would take courage and would certainly upset a lot of fans, but it surely beats the alternative.
Players have the right to expect to leave the field without being trampled – and even to engage in shoving with members of the other team without people in the stands rushing over. This is a workplace safety issue, and it should be treated as such.
No one was injured during Sunday’s matchup between the Tigers and Gamecocks. But those responsible must focus not on what didn’t happen but on what could have happened.
