We’ve all heard of Pac-12 After Dark. Now, prepare to meet its cousin, Mountain West After Dark. In Saturday night’s game between Air Force and UNLV, things got weird.
One of the oddities of college football is that there are marching bands. Sometimes those marching bands will play when they shouldn’t. When that happens, the referee or public address announcer will usually get on the microphone and tell the band to stop. That’s kind of what happened on Saturday, only the referee took it to another level.
During a stoppage of play late in the third quarter, referee Steve Baron went into the crowd and told the UNLV band to stop playing when Air Force had the ball. And he didn’t simply hop over one railing to make his decree. Baron went several rows into the crowd, walking among the fans.
The ref just went into the crowd and told the UNLV band to stop playing whilst Air Force has the ball (I think at least) 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/9xA9FAbXgV
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) October 16, 2022
There was a lot of confusion fun around Baron’s actions.
As we said ear😄lier . craziest day ever https://t.co/Z1KEGMGrzy
— Gabriel Morency (@sportsrage) October 16, 2022
“Your 2nd clarinets are terribly out of tune. Five yard penalty and loss of down” https://t.co/mL5jKspPCs
— Kevin Kessler (@SoDakStBandMan) October 16, 2022
There's no power trip more extreme than being a college football refereehttps://t.co/zum2bmuune
— Nick Field (@nick_field90) October 16, 2022
OMG. 😂😂😂 https://t.co/odQLxiTMvI
— Dustin Fox (@DustinFox37) October 16, 2022
Carl Cheffers refs NCAA games too? https://t.co/Q8XkZJh0GZ
— Joel Rains (@RainsJ7) October 16, 2022
This is amazing lol https://t.co/xoQBnlV5iJ
— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) October 16, 2022
I ain't ever seen this before. What a day in sports history! https://t.co/aXTbgliLeF
— Jeremy Morgan ; 🏴☠️ (@porpster) October 16, 2022
That’s a new one. https://t.co/KMPEvex2pk
— ALT 107.5 (@alt1075lv) October 16, 2022
There’s a reason that referees don’t usually go into the crowds — it’s an incredibly stupid idea. If you go to a game, you’re likely to see some fans happy and others upset. It’s the nature of sports. One thing that virtually every fan in attendance is in common, though, is they don’t like the referees. This is more likely to be true when the home team is getting soundly beaten — as was the case here.
Fortunately things worked out well for Baron this time. We wouldn’t recommend he or any other referee trying this ever again, though.
[Mr. Matthew CFB, Photo Credit: CBS Sports Network]
