Brandon Spikes Got Off Easy, but We Should All Climb Down Off This High Horse

Three words:

"It's all football."

That statement alone should be enough to quiet the detractors regarding the actions of Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes , who purposefully jammed his fingers through the facemask of a defenseless opponent.  

It should be enough to silence the critics of Urban Meyer for not issuing a sterner punishment to his star linebacker rather than benching him for the first half of the Vanderbilt game.

It should even be enough to quiet any arguments about whether or not UF athletic director Jeremy Foley or SEC commissioner Mike Slive should use his authority to issue Spikes a "real suspension."

Those words, even with clear YouTube video of the incident, should suffice anyone who has anything negative to say about this entire ordeal, which has drawn endless amounts of criticism to go around all of Gainesville.

They were, after all, spoken by Georgia running back Washaun Ealey ...the victim that people are pretending to care about. 

Ealey himself seemed a bit taken aback by the attention garnered from Saturday's game. His exact statement regarding Spikes was, "He shouldn't, I think, get suspended at all. We were just out there playing football."

Ealey went on to say, "I'm pretty sure it goes on back and forth. We probably do it and other teams do too. It's all football. We're just out there trying to have fun."

"It's all football." Those three words again are what my mind falls back to when I try to form an angry yet intelligible opinion regarding the very physical, brute nature of football pushing past the limits of what viewers are used to seeing.

Look, it's not that I condone eye-gouging on any level. It's not just dirty; it's dangerous, with the possibility of blinding someone. It's not even allowed in combat sports.

I'm also not saying that Meyer shouldn't get any heat for benching a player for half a game for doing something that is even frowned upon in MMA fighting (or what I like to call dog fighting for humans). Although to be fair to Meyer , he wouldn't be the first coach in football to hand down light punishments for a player's egregious acts.

Even the loveable Bobby Bowden was quoted as saying, "There's more than one way to discipline a player than a dadgum suspension ."

But how exactly am I to summon the strength for compassion when athletes engage in an accepted sport that is inherently dangerous for you—one that has been likened by many of the sport's professional brethren to getting into a car crash about 50 times over?

Should I be outraged that a high-profile college football coach cares more about winning a national championship than engaging in a teaching moment, as if to say that's how fans and the media will judge his legacy?

Wins and losses are what matter these days, not the physical rigors, academic success, or unsportsmanlike conduct on the field. 

When a player for your favorite team goes down with what appears to be a significant injury, is your first thought concern for his health—or rather, will he miss any game time?

Do any of you feel bad if a player doesn't get the most out of his college education while in school? 

Do you care if a star player for your team gets penalized for a late hit if he knocks the opposing team's star player out of the game?

Somehow, and maybe I'm blind and quite naive, I managed to miss the outrage over this whole issue. 

Organized Chaos

There is a unique line from The Dark Knight where the Joker says, "Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even when the plan is horrifying." And so it goes with retaliatory violence in sports.

Admire a home run too long and expect to get hit with a 90-plus mile per hour fastball. Throw down too many ferocious dunks and expect to get fouled hard the next time you drive to the lane. Things get a little out of hand on the ice, and the refs will give you some time to "mix it up."

Nowhere is this more accepted than in football, where force and intimidation are required parts of the game. Why else would a receiver be afraid to go over the middle to catch a ball or a quarterback want to slide when running out of the pocket for a first down?

But no one (fans included) stops to think what would happen if a player is seriously injured from a retaliatory fastball, hard foul, allowed fisticuffs while on ice skates, or hits across the middle. It's all just part of the plan.

It's an organized plan to keep us entertained by all means and at all costs. But I'm not sure NFL or collegiate players and coaches understand those parameters, even just when dealing with a serious issue like injuries. 

Why else would Rams kickoff returner Danny Amendola consider returning to action this Sunday after stating his "mind wasn't working " after taking a vicious hit against the Lions' Zach Follett?

And did anyone really believe that Tim Tebow wasn't going to play in a rival game against LSU that could dampen Florida's BCS hopes?

Not to mention Steelers safety Ryan Clark being medically cleared to play against the Denver Broncos , despite the fact that the high altitudes of Denver coupled with his sickle cell trait almost cost him his life.

My point here is that it's all organized chaos. It's an accepted part of the game.    

A video capturing a moment that Washaun Ealey (remember...the victim) feels happens more times than we think shouldn't be our cause for concern.

Maybe the real issue is if we really care at all.