Gouging, Punching, and Smack Talking

That's right sports fans... i have finally caved to the pressure of multiple peers and started a sports blog. I will try to update as much as possible, and will comment on simply anything related to sports that happens to peak my interest. We start today with the hot topic of the past week, which is the famous eye gouge of Washaun Ealey by Brandon Spikes and the resulting fallout.

Here is a link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQX0eomzg8

Lets break this down strictly on the raw facts. Ealey was stopped behind the line of scrimmage and his forward momentum stopped before spikes even touched him. His participation in the play was completely unnecessary. Spikes then appears to go after the eyes of Ealey while he is pinned down in the pile. This by itself is a dispicable act that should have no place in college athletics....

But the problem here is that it is in fact a part of college football. Actions like this take place all the time, at the bottom of nearly every pile, especially in a big time rivalry game like this.

Also, you have to put the situation into context. There are all kinds of rumors that Ealey had spit on Spikes the previous play and Spikes was simply rubbing the spit back on his face(i call bull shit), that Spikes was retaliating from earlier in the game when his helmet was knocked off and he himself was poked in the eye(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnPj3aeAzZU), or that Spikes was retaliating from a late hit on Tebow (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5ZeFSDDaM). The fact is, this game is a very heated rivalry, and while i do not condone the action, lets not make it a bigger deal than it was. Whatever his reason, Spikes participated in a dirty play, that is not uncommon in football, and he got caught on national television.

There was also a lot of backlash from the suspension only being for one half. However, that is exactly the amount of suspension that was warranted. The suspension for fighting during a game is ejection from the game and one half of the next game. Only if the player leaves the bench to engage in a fight does the suspension become a full game suspension.

Ultimately, this whole situation seems to me to be much ado about nothing. The kid made a poor decision to participate in a dirty play, and he was punished. Why wasn't that the end of this story?