Two years ago, Nick Saban was right to defend former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Jermaine Burton and not suspend him after he shoved a Tennessee Football fan storming the field in the Vols’ 52-49 win over the Crimson Tide. Josh Heupel should follow that lead with Omari Thomas.
The Vols’ senior defensive tackle was caught on camera throwing a fan to the ground after his team lost 19-14 to the Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday night. It came as UT was leaving the field just as fans had stormed it due to their huge upset, their first top five home win since beating Rocky Top in 1999.
Obviously, it was a bad look, made even worse by the fact that the fan fell into a female fan, knocking both down. Thomas, to his credit, sent out a message on social media apologizing for his actions. The apology was somewhat backhanded, though, by him explaining what happened.
To be clear, Thomas was wrong and shouldn’t have made that mistake. However, Heupel shouldn’t punish him at all. There should be an unspoken policy in the world of sports that when fans run out onto the field, their rights and their protections end.
Look, the SEC has clear policies against storming the field. For all intents and purposes, it’s rioting when fans do so. They are destroying property and causing havoc. It’s dangerous by its very nature and could get somebody seriously hurt. They are always in the wrong.
Sure, they shouldn’t be judged too harshly getting caught up in the win. However, since they are already in the wrong by violating SEC standards, putting lots of people at risk and destroying property, it should be an unwritten rule that they surrender any rights once they make that decision.
On the other side, when a losing team is just trying to get off the field in that scenario, they are going to face harassment and taunts from the opposing fan base. This is happening right after the heat of battle when they often fought their guts out and are now feeling sick for coming up short.
Thomas, for his part, was involved with a Tennessee Football defensive line that was trying to get a push all night on the Hogs and was successful until the final drive, when they got worn down because of no help from the offense. All that work Thomas put in at the most physically demanding position resulted in no stats and a loss.
Of course he’s going to be upset leaving the field. The one bit of grace he deserves is to leave the field in peace. We can’t ask these linemen to be gladiator-type players for three hours and expect them to turn it off in a heartbreaking loss after fighting their guts out to protect fans who are in a place they shouldn’t be.
Sorry, but Thomas deserves no suspension. In fact, he deserves credit for clearing his head enough to apologize, which proves why he is one of the leaders of Tennessee Football. Players owe no apologies for shoving a fan on the field, and there should be no legal protections for said fan. As a result, Thomas shouldn’t be suspended.
