At the Argo game last night, in the 3rd quarter an Argo player was returning a kick and he seemed to find a hole, the crowd’s excitement started to rise and then it fell very quickly as two of the oppositions players close the hole by sandwiching the Argo. The players got up off the field and started heading to opposite sidelines but then one of them noticed the Argo was still facedown on the turf. EMS, traniers, doctors rush out the field and start doing their thing.
The minutes pass and then one of my friends says, “Maroon 5 really?” I hadn’t really noticed but playing over the stadium’s speakers was a Maroon 5 song. My friend felt it was bad form to play music while a guy’s career, his life could be in the balance on the field. I countered that silence would be even worse, most of the fans were silent watching, the players from both teams were huddled around most on one knee waiting for the guy to be either carted off or for him to magically get up. A couple of songs later they played “Dream On” by Aerosmith, that was kindof weird with the circumstances, the song suddenly felt depressing. Eventually the guy was carted off the field, people clapped and play resumed.
But what should the stadium do in that kind of circumstance? Did they do the right thing? I don’t think that they had someone programing the music song by song, it isn’t like some guy said “Hey let’s play Maroon 5 now!”, it was probably just a pre-conceived order for stoppages in play. It is a tough question.
June 18, 2009 at 12:20 pm |
Well, first off, I would never play Maroon 5, but that’s just me and my whole “Maroon 5 sucks donkey balls” thing. But to your point and your question. I don’t know what I’d do if I was the PA guy at the Dome.
Part of me says, do something to distract the audience, cheerleaders or something. But another part of me says do nothing. So I don’t know.
June 18, 2009 at 12:27 pm |
“So I don’t know”
See, told you it is a tough question.
June 18, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
I know I know!
Seriously, I’d keep silent. I think when a player is down, the most respectful thing is to keep the music off so it doesn’t seem like a mockery. You’re not going to distract the audience, so I wouldn’t even try. Let the medics do what they need to do without music blaring in their ears and respect the fact that there’s a human being injured down there. The music can resume when the player is off the field.
My $.02