
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 2, 1995                   TAG: 9510020098
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OL' BENNIE KNOWS THE SCORE

In our As-If-We-Didn't-Have-Enough-Trouble Department today we find The New York Times has applied that tired phrase "politically correct" to college football.

The Times indicated that it is not "politically correct" to "run up the score" - which is a sports writers' phrase that has been around longer than "politically correct."

I'm sorry - and this is my opinion and should not be binding on fellow Radford Bobcats - but I don't see anything wrong with running up the score.

The Washington Redskins don't run up the score on anybody and you can see what a season - make that decade - they're having.

But the practice causes college coaches to argue and you can see that this thing gets pretty serious when Joe Paterno - who is expected to be sainted during halftime any day now - acts like a normal person. That is, he got mad at an opposing coach who complained about the Nittany Lions of Penn State adding indiscriminately to the score.

What's the big deal here? The score in the game with Rutgers was 59-34.

The second-string quarterback threw a touchdown with only 58 seconds left in the game. Oh, the shame!

So what's the guy supposed to do? Call time out, give the ball to the other team and ask the defensive line over for tea and a nice chat after the game?

I don't keep in touch as much as I used to, but I'm pretty sure the people who pay large sums of money for football tickets kind of like to see touchdowns. And they probably also don't mind seeing the home team "rub it in" - which is an old Radford phrase.

Sure. College football is color and excitement and pennants waving in the crisp autumn breeze, and cheerleaders, and all of the schools "are educating students for tomorrow's challenges."

But people like to see touchdowns and what some sports commentators refer to as "smash-mouth" football.

I can see the day when this kind of sensitivity leads to quarrels among band directors.

"Don't offer me your hand, you pervert. I saw you running up the crowd interest with those politically incorrect majorettes wearing next to nothing."

I just don't understand this score thing. We all know that somebody always runs up the score on you in daily living and football is, after all, just a game.

In my case, for example, this means the score right now is Life 68, Bennie O, and we're deep in the fourth quarter.

by CNB