DELAY OF ‘THE GAME’
Protest makes a wild game even wilder
NEW HAVEN — At the remarkable climax, when Ryan Burke made sure he grabbed a piece of Harvard’s B.J. Watson and made sure his team would grab a piece of the Ivy League championship, the video board at the other end of the Yale Bowl provided the only discerning light.
There had been a
40minute, onfield studentled protest over climate change at halftime. There had been a comeback from
2913 — the same numerical comeback Harvard staged in the 1968 game between these two teams that ended in a legendary tie. And now here was the second overtime to a game, The Game, that lasted so long it appeared we may find out if those predications that climate change is going to kill us all within 12 years would come true.
“It was very surreal,” said senior JP Shohfi, who caught 10 passes for 103 yards and the tying touchdown with 18 seconds left in regulation. “It didn’t matter. We were ready to go again and again and again.”
Bizarre. Thrilling. Yes, this one lasted forever. And down to the moment Burke tackled Watson short of a first down on a fourthand5 play, it was worth every second.
It was dark by 4:30 p.m. Saturday, yet after this 5043 victory over Harvard that gave the Bulldogs a share of the Ivy League title with Dartmouth, coach Tony Reno insisted his team had practiced in darker in the Bowl over the course of the season.
“I felt one of our advantages is we were better in the dark,” Reno said.
Reno is nothing if not a prepared man and he even had a plan for the delay caused by student groups from the two schools.
“It’s interesting, we talk as a staff about
things that can happen during a game,” Reno said. “Like what happens if lightning hits. To be honest, we went to our lightning plan.”
So Yale went back, had some food, hydrated. An area was cleared for stretching. They needed to be wellfortified and limber for a crazy second half and one the greatest games in YaleHarvard history. Asked if this was even greater than 1968, Reno said, “We won so I like this one.”
If you google “lightning” and “climate change,” some stories suggest there will be more lightning strikes in our future and some suggest there will be fewer. Only fools think the climate of our planet isn’t vital or unworthy of our greatest minds. Ivy League minds. That certainly is something to remember as we gush over the brilliant football into the darkness of this day.
“A classic football game,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.
“Heroic,” Murphy said of his freshman running back Aidan Borguet, who broke off touchdown runs of 47, 59, 60 and 67 yards.
“Holy mackerel,” Murphy said of Yale quarterback Kurt Rawlings, who completed his distinguished career by setting a school record with 479 total offensive yards in a game.
“A bit of a debacle,” Murphy said of the long protest delay.
All true.
“People say this is the greatest rivalry in all of sports,” Reno said. “I think that was on display today.”
True, too.
Yet it would also be cavalier if not reckless to dismiss what the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition and Divest Harvard did at halftime.
The Harvard band performed. The Yale band performed. The marching bands, as Don McLean once sang in “American Pie,” did not refuse to yield. Not all the protesters, however, did and some would be arrested.
Around 2 p.m., a group of about 50 students filtered onto the field. They kneeled, began to clap and chant. They unfurled signs, one of them directly addressing the presidents of both schools, and it was clear the protest involved climate change.
“We act in protest of Yale and Harvard’s complicity in the climate crisis,” read a pamphlet, jointly distributed by the two groups. “When Harvard and Yale invest in companies that destroy our planet and its people, they are complicit in the climate crisis — nobody wins.
“Our universities profit from the climate injustice and ignore student voices. Today, we take action.”
And so the protesters did.
The group of 50 grew quickly. In the succeeding minutes everyone and their brother seemed to join them. Police and Yale security began intercepting a few as they made their way down the stadium stairs and onto the field. Far more made in toward the 50yard line to join a crowd that eventually swelled to nearly a 1,000.
There were even kids tossing football around as protesters continued to chant. Police and security stood nearly motionless, not enflaming the situation. It was turning into a miniWoodstock.
At 2:09, the public address announcer began to ask that the everyone “please” clear the field so the game could resume. He continued the announcement for nearly a half hour. By 2:15, both teams, which had emerged on the field to begin warming up, returned to their locker rooms. Enter Reno’s lightning plan.
Queen, John Denver, artists of every ilk, were played. The protesters didn’t budge. Many in the crowd began to lose their patience and started to boo. Some intrepid Yale fans began to chant, “Harvard sucks!”
I made my way out of the press box and approached a group of young women who held large signs under the Yale Bowl videoboard.
“Yale Divest From Fossil Fuels”
“Which Side Are You On?”
“Inaction Is Not An Option”
“Harvard, Yale Complicit”
None were authorized to speak, they said pleasantly. My cell number was taken. A press liaison would call. As of 7 p.m., no one did.
In the meantime, more urgent calls to clear the field continued and finally the crowd on the field began to disperse. The players reappeared on the field at 2:34 p.m. The police closed on the remaining cluster, escorting them off the field.
At 2:38, the field finally was cleared. At 2:48, play resumed.
“Yale stands firmly for the right of free expression,” Yale said in a statement. “Today, students from Harvard and Yale expressed their views and delayed the start of the second half. We stand with the Ivy League in its statement that, ‘It is regrettable that the orchestrated protest came during a time when fellow students were participating in a collegiate careerdefining contest and an annual tradition when thousands gather from around the world to enjoy and celebrate the storied traditions of both football programs and universities.’”
The school and Yale athletic director Vicky Chun praised the police and staff for ensuring the peaceful departure of the students from the field.
“We are proud of our studentathletes and coaches for their resilience today in an extremely difficult situation.”
What makes The Game great is the rivalry, the tradition, the football. What also makes it great is many of the athletes and those cheering them on go on to become some of the most important minds in American society. A little civil disobedience by the smart kids? Boola! Boola!
The protest didn’t bother me a bit. The length of it did. If it had been cut 20 minutes shorter, it would have irritated fewer, wouldn’t have left everyone in the dark, and still had the intended impact.
The groups had a hashtag for their protest #Nobodywins. Somebody did. Yale.