The Border Showdown turned ugly this week, and I ain’t talking about things escalating with Canada or Mexico.
Nope. I’m talking about the rivalry game formerly known as the Border War between Kansas and Missouri. Nothing like some good, old fashioned college football pettiness to get us started this weekend!
For those who missed it, Kansas trolled Missouri via social media with a hype video before Friday’s showdown with their longtime rival. It was your typical video — music, cool highlights, some corny voiceover. The works.
KANSAS RENEWS BORDER WAR RIVALRY WITH MISSOURI BY CALLING TIGERS ‘EVIL,’ INVOKING SLAVERY IMAGERY
But this one had one extra element that nobody saw coming — depictions of slavery and the Civil War! That’s right. Some intern on the Jayhawks’ social media team decided to use the fact that Missouri was on the side of slavery during the Civil War as a focal point of the video, which, naturally, went mega-viral.
Take a look:
Amazing. Poor taste? Perhaps. Just a bit. But still, amazing.
Over 12,000 reposts and 34 million views. Bad PR is still good PR, you know? Or something like that.
Bold move by whoever green-lit that little number. Casting themselves as the righteous “heroes” and Missouri as the “villains,” complete with Civil War newspaper clippings and a cameos by Abolitionist John Brown and “Bushwacker” leader William Quantrill was certainly a choice by whoever put that video together.
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Personally, I don’t get offended by things that happened well over a century ago. None of us were alive back then. Why get so worked up over something so arbitrary? Seems like a waste of energy to me. It’s a rivalry game.
That’s me, though.
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz took it … a little more personal:
“I was a little disappointed,” the Tigers’ head coach said. “I thought that was uncalled for. Especially on 9/11 when we need more unity now than ever before. I’m just glad that this ‘right versus wrong’ bullcrap that was started got settled on the football field, because it’s a football game.
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“I get there’s a past. But why are we stirring that bullcrap up? I was embarrassed for them, to be honest, and that’s why I tried to embarrass them at the end.”
Lordy.
Missouri won, 38-21, in a game that was tied at halftime but got away from Kansas in the second half. The Tigers scored a touchdown on fourth down late in the final quarter already up by 10, and then got the ball back with 28 seconds left after Kansas turned it over on downs.
Instead of taking a knee and running out the clock, Mizzou backup QB Matt Zollers dropped back to pass and threw it incomplete into the end zone. The TIgers did end up running on the next play to end the game, but the message was sent.
And, according to Drinkwitz, it was intentional … all because of a silly social media video.
Whatever you need to get those juices flowing, though. Rivalry games in college football are different. It’s why we love this sport.
Let’s hope this one continues.
“”I mean, if they’re gonna be weird about, what’s the point?” Drinkwitz said after the win. “If they wanna have a football game and have a great rivalry on the border, awesome let’s do it. But, if we wanna make it deeper than that man.
“Like, we left Kansas bleeding again. Call it good”
