20 yrs ago, Hit Changed Lives Foreve

[jaxvid]

What do you make of this story? it seems excessive to me. Some white guilt perhaps. Or something else?

Twenty Years Ago, One Hit Changed Two Lives Forever

 

[guest301]

It's excessive the guilt he feels but I wouldn't call it white guilt. It was a tragic accident(nobody's fault) and he should move on with his life is the advice I would give him.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I suppose their is some sort of guilt or responsibility that Brad Gaines holds on to. I've read stories about this for over 10 years and find it interesting. I don't know that I would do things much differently if it had been me in that situation. Like one person responded, there shouldn't be any guilt because Chucky made the hit. Brad did nothing wrong. I imagine Brad made a commitment to do all that back when Chucky died in 1991 and wants to keep it. I don't see white guilt playing into this though. The white/black discussion is just pushed by the media. I doubt that it had anything to do with Brad's decision to visit his grave back then. By the way, this event sparked my interest in Ole Miss football, along with the 1990 Egg Bowl melee in Jackson.
Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

You know, the more I think about this, and what Brad Gaines is thinking, the more I believe it goes back to the martial aspect of college football in the South. Some of you might not understand this, but for decades, Southern gridiron was viewed as a battlefield. The South could fight against the North once again, except without rifled muskets. Every SEC team took this seriously not just when playing northern teams in bowl games, but throughout the season when playing each other. I believe this martial tradition was strongest and longest lasting at Ole Miss and Vandy. Both schools were elitist in different ways and both football teams hated each other, probably because they were so much alike. I believe it very well could be that Brad Gaines understood the honor of that martial tradition and feels responsibility to visit and clean up the grave of his fallen gridiron enemy. To me, being from the Deep South, this is not far fetched. Brad may not be thinking this way, but there's a good chance of it. Regardless of that, the Southern martial tradition in football is real, and it manifested itself in various ways until very recently in the SEC. If this still doesn't make sense to some of you, all I can say is its a Southern thing, y'all wouldn't understand.

Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Pollyanna]

The negro should have kept his head up, and form tackled the player, rather than spearing him with his helmet. Typical thug type "blackle", instead of using fundamentals. I think the protagonist in this story is a bit of a fool, he needs to move on and find another cause, instead of this mock, melanin mongering man love,charade.

Hope I'm not being too insensitive, but come on, people die every day (and we will too.) F the journalist that invokes race in this retread of a non-story.

Edited by: Pollyanna

 

[Pollyanna]

Well, I did just have gum surgery and have been on some pain killers, so pardon my indifference and cynicism.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Pollyanna, no problem man. Did they take out your Juicy Fruit?

Seriously though, I agree that Brad should move on, unless he made a vow. I don't think I would have made such a vow, although I probably would have visited the grave a few times anyway. To explain 20 years worth of doing that, I would think he did make some kind of vow. Otherwise, the man is in need of some help.

 

[Pollyanna]

As one of this guys family members, I would harbor feelings of abandonment during the Holidays when daddy goes off on his semi-annual pilgrimage to pay homage to a dead negro. Especially irksome is the dead,dumb ass left no other legacy than to have shattered his spine due to spearing a defenseless receiver. Good God, get a life.

 

[guest301]

I think you are on to something Reb, The man probably made a vow to himself and to Chucky about visiting his grave and he is doing the white thing, keeping his honor and his word. If that's not the case then he has served his penance and should stop these visits to the gravesite and move on with his life.

 

[DixieDestroyer]

Gaines needs to let go of that guilt already. They've been harping on this White guilt/"feel good" story for ages (every football season) here in the South. It was an accident incurred during a violent sport/game. I never saw how Gaines ever felt that was his fault. It's irritating to see Whites succumb to bogus guilt-trips like this. The caste media loves hyping this, a similar stories.

Edited by: DixieDestroyer

 

[Bart]

 As one of this guys family members,  I would harbor feelings of abandonment during the Holidays when daddy goes off on his semi-annual pilgrimage to pay homage to a dead negro.  Especially irksome is  the dead,dumb ass left no other legacy than to have shattered his spine due to spearing a defenseless receiver.  Good God, get a life.  

Most people would think you are insensitive. I don't. You speak the truth. The man's false sense of guilt has crippled him. His family is suffering the consequences. For what?? He's just another example of a typical lobotomized white man in America.

 

[Thrashen]

 As one of this guys family members,  I would harbor feelings of abandonment during the Holidays when daddy goes off on his semi-annual pilgrimage to pay homage to a dead negro.  Especially irksome is  the dead,dumb ass left no other legacy than to have shattered his spine due to spearing a defenseless receiver.  Good God, get a life.  

Calling Mullins a dumbass doesnt really make sense in this situation. It's not his fault the invasive media rehashes the story of his death each year....or that phoney, photo-op-hungry "celebrities" visited him in the hospital because it was a "popular" news story at the time.

During my junior year of college football, I ended a guy's season on a routine tackle, and I still think about it. I couldnt imagine if he died as a result. Gaines does need to let this go, especially since Mullins only died over a year after the hit. I honestly wonder if Gaines would go to these great lengths if Mullins had been white? Or better yet, would Mullins (black) had cared this much if he accidentaly killed Gaines (white)? I doubt it. Edited by: Thrashen

 

[Bart]

I honestly wonder if Gaines would go to these great lengths if Mullins had been white? Or better yet, would Mullins (black) had cared this much if he accidentaly killed Gaines (white)? I doubt it.

I didn't realize what a big deal this story was. Even the prez had to get in on the act. Priorities I guess.

From Wikipedia:

As soon as the injury occurred, Mullins became the recipient of a huge outpouring of community support. Ole Miss fans, college football fans in the South and people from all over the nation immediately began to donate money towards Mullin's growing medical expenses. President George H.W. Bush visited Mullins in his hospital room personally and encouraged him while on a visit to Memphis. Soon, Ole Miss established the "Chucky Mullins Trust Fund" to properly manage the donations. The City of Oxford donated land for a specially-designed handicap accessible house for Mullins. Donations to the trust fund eventually exceeded $1 million.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

This was definitely a tragedy. I don't see a racial angle here though, but the media will always try for a white guilt/ pro black story if they can.

I've seen many times where a white player gets a little too pumped or out of control and leads with the helmet. When you're running full speed and leaning forward with the body, or have to dive to complete a tackle or make a catch, sometimes naturally the helmet will make contact first in a collision. Calling the dead man, a typical black thug tackler, is ridiculous.

As far as Gaines, this was a complete accident and he needs to get past it. A very rare thing like this could have happened to any opponent on a college football field, it just so happened it was the guy that collided with him. If this guy still lives with serious guilt everyday, I am at a loss for advice. The guy needs mental help.

Edited by: ToughJ.Riggins

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Reb, interesting info on the North-South game SEC "war" mentality. We can always turn to you for CF's "Southern Report". The SEC today has lost it's "southern" pride with it's coal black starting lineups.

 

[Pollyanna]

Tough J, the article relates that the coaches did not think Mullins was very talented, so I was simply going with that information and inferred the lack of fundamental tackling technique for the sake of argument having never witnessed his play (it's called embellishing). With that said, I will retract my description of the dead negro as a " dumb ass" and "thug."

 

[Bronk]

The Colonel is dead-on about the martial aspect of football from the Southern persective.

It was/is the same thing in Texas. When Cactus Pryor was asked why Texans loved football so much he said, 'because we killed all the indians around here.' When Georgia went north to play Michigan in the 1960s, they brought their Confederate battle flags with them. When Florida played Penn State in the 1962 Gator Bowl the Gators wore Rebel flag decals on their helmets. The hatred for Notre Dame that is so prevalent in Texas and Dixie is because the Fighting Irish are seen as agents of northern hegemony. Back in 1990 when the Texas Longhorns played (and beat) Penn State in State College, one of the (white) Texas players audibly yelled "Take THAT you f**king Yankee punks!" after a TD (I still have that on an old VHS tape somewhere).

Northerners were aware of this. When I interviewed former Notre Damer and Houston Oiler Coach Lou Rymkus he talked about ND playing Georgia Tech in the late 1930s: "That was a brutal game, that was North against South."

Football is, and always has been, a war game.

That said, Brad needs to let go of this. There is a creepy component to hanging onto it.Edited by: Bronk

 

[white is right]

I remember this story when it happened. It's a tragedy but anybody that has ever put on a football helmet knows it can happen. If it was a clean play I wouldn't have any guilt. I would be haunted by it though. But I probably wouldn't let the world know beyond his immediate family.

 

[ToughJ.Riggins]

Tough J, the article relates that the coaches did not think Mullins was very talented, so I was simply going with that information and inferred the lack of fundamental tackling technique for the sake of argument having never witnessed his play (it's called embellishing). With that said, I will retract my description of the dead negro as a" dumb ass" and "thug."

Glad to see you hold yourself to a high standard- we don't know whether to expect Pollyanna or Debbie Downer from you, lol.

Speaking of thugs, I remember I made the mistake of taking a trip to the NJ state aquarium in Camden a little over a year ago with my then wife to be. You have to drive a couple blocks through Camden until you hit the aquarium on the water front (leave it to the state of NJ to try to "fix up" Camden by putting the state aquarium in that war zone).

You want to see a real black "thug", go to Camden. It had the highest murder rate in the U.S in a recent study. I'd never make the mistake of even driving a few blocks in that city again. I saw a group of young black men just hanging on the corner and I figured most of them were gang members. I don't think the black NFL players would want to drive through that city in their expensive cars either. They supposedly heighten up police protection near the Camden waterfront, but I sure didn't feel safe.

 

[screamingeagle]

I may be reading into this story. If Gaines needs to visit the grave site three times a year to keep it clean, then nobody else is visiting his grave. Mullin's family doesn't seem to visit. They probably don't care.

 

[foreverfree]

I wonder how much sympathy the (White) Ole Miss community and White would have given Mullins in his plight 50, 45, even 40 years ago, if the Rebels and the SEC were as integrated (at least on the gridiron) as it is today (or in 1989)? I thought that question when the Mullins hit happened 20 years ago, and I'm thinking that question now.

BTW Brent Musberger, then with CBS, soon after the Mullins incident, showed an Ole Miss helmet on the set of "NFL Today". It had "Ole Miss" on one side and Mullins' number on the other, the Rebs having altered their headgear in support of Chucky.

John

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Yep, they put Chucky's number on the left side of the helmets for the 1989 LSU game. It was a typical New Miss act, bending over backwards to appear PC and try to gain the favor of blacks. As for your scenario, its a strange one to me. If the school and team was as black 50 years ago as today (or 1989) would whites care as much as they did from 1989 onward? Well, if the team was racially integrated in 1959, then the school would have been much more liberal than it is. I'd say the reaction would be slightly smaller in 1959 than in 1989 because there weren't outpourings of affection for injured football players in the 1950s as in the late 1980s, as far as I know. But if you are changing history to make Ole Miss have a half black football team before the school was even integrated, then American society would have been a lot different too, thus making the differences between that scenario and what actually happened very small. To me the question doesn't make much sense because you are assuming a radically different society. I guess one way to answer such a question would be to research similar injuries that happened to players on integrated teams in the 1950s-1960s. Maybe other posters have some info on something like this.

 

[sport historian]

You know, the more I think about this, and what Brad Gaines is thinking, the more I believe it goes back to the martial aspect of college football in the South. Some of you might not understand this, but for decades, Southern gridiron was viewed as a battlefield. The South could fight against the North once again, except without rifled muskets. Every SEC team took this seriously not just when playing northern teams in bowl games, but throughout the season when playing each other. I believe this martial tradition was strongest and longest lasting at Ole Miss and Vandy. Both schools were elitist in different ways and both football teams hated each other, probably because they were so much alike. I believe it very well could be that Brad Gaines understood the honor of that martial tradition and feels responsibility to visit and clean up the grave of his fallen gridiron enemy. To me, being from the Deep South, this is not far fetched. Brad may not be thinking this way, but there's a good chance of it. Regardless of that, the Southern martial tradition in football is real, and it manifested itself in various ways until very recently in the SEC. If this still doesn't make sense to some of you, all I can say is its a Southern thing, y'all wouldn't understand. 

Colonel Reb is correct. I am an old-line SEC fan who 50 years ago this fall at age 9 pretended to be Billy Cannon in my backyard. In the 1960's, it was a big thing when an SEC team played a northern or west coast opponent. The Southern martial tradition was part of it.

 

[Bronk]

Somewhere I have video tape of Mullins' hit on Gaines. My recollection is that he did not duck his head and that it looked like a routine tackle.

With regard to tackling: in all may years of playing football I never, never, never ducked my head to make a tackle. Simply put, you cannot see to make the tackle if your head is down. However, just yesterday in a college game, I saw a player duck his head to make a block and several others duck theirs to make tackles. The point being that good players as well as bad duck their heads although it is stupid to do so. I have no clue why this is.

Tackling techniques are atrocious at all levels of football. One of the marks of a well-coached team is how well its players strike a lick and LOCK UP on their opponents.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I know I've posted this before, but here's the hit that started the whole thing.

Edited by: Colonel_Reb