Censorship in Charlottesville

What's going on in the C-wealth? First Va. Tech bans harmless chants, and then UVA bans harmless signs? C-wealth people, lighten up. We're talking about football here.

Check out this column in the Cavalier Daily, which details the plight of engineering student David Becker, whose repeated attempts to flash "Groh Must Go" signs last week (including one made with "scraps of poster board," whatever that means) finally led to a warning that he would be kicked out if he didn't cool it with the signs.

"I wanted to show my feelings and the feelings of others," Becker said. "I wasn't causing any problems. I love the team. I'm always the first one there for football and basketball games, but when you have a coach who's not performing up to expectations, you want people to know. You should be able to hold up a sign."

When asked to comment, Jason Bauman, associate director of athletics for facilities and operations, said the move was consistent with venue policy restricting "derogatory" signs.

Derogatory? "Groh is an arrogant blowhard whose departure will not be missed" would be derogatory. "Groh smells like toe cheese" would be derogatory. "Groh must go" is an imperative, expressing a deep-seated desire. You can say you don't like it, but I don't see how you can call it derogatory.

The CD columnist brought up one of the all-time great Groh quotes: "I understand fans," Groh said last fall. "I don't think fans understand coaches. I fly on a lot of airplanes. Just because I fly on airplanes doesn't qualify me to be a pilot."

Which is true, but it also reminded me of this more recent Groh quote:

"Any time you don't get the results that you want it would be arrogant to say that you think things are perfect," the coach said. "Arrogance is one of the first steps toward failure."

Right on.

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Comments

I would say that arrogance is the first step towards Awesomeness.

Posted by: WaPoLiveFan16 | September 12, 2007 4:09 PM | Report abuse

As a Terp grad, may I be the first to say:

"Don't Go Groh!"

Posted by: indy | September 12, 2007 4:13 PM | Report abuse

you want quotes??? ;-)

www.dontfirealgroh.com

Posted by: hmmmmm | September 12, 2007 8:43 PM | Report abuse

Fine, get rid of him. But who do we replace him with? Stupid engineering student. I thought they were supposed to build weight-bearing chairs or floatable boats out of "scraps of posterboard". A sign is too easy - any old Anthropology major can pull that one off.

Posted by: Extra P. | September 13, 2007 12:30 PM | Report abuse

How about "Groh's life will be enhanced by seeking alternative employment"? Sounds fairly positive to me.

Posted by: Tom | September 13, 2007 5:35 PM | Report abuse

Al Groh is one of the greatest things for the state of Virginia... Tech football.

Posted by: sitruc | September 13, 2007 10:20 PM | Report abuse

From the linked article---"I understand fans," Groh famously said last fall to the media. "I don't think fans understand coaches. I fly on a lot of airplanes. Just because I fly on airplanes doesn't qualify me to be a pilot."

How about a sign that says:

"DING. You are now free to fly around the country."

Posted by: Gregors | September 14, 2007 11:12 AM | Report abuse

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