Kansas Athletes Brawl Over 'Turf War,' Later Apologize

Kansas hoopsters have made themselves look incredibly silly over the past few days, and it would take a brilliant apology to alleviate that perception. And you know what? This is actually pretty close:

“I’m embarrassed because of the situation,” he said. “It’s a situation that none of us should have gotten into. We embarrassed our campus, our university, both teams, and it’s just a situation that shouldn’t have happened. Looking back at it, it was just really stupid. I wish I could take it back.”

Self said he was stern and unyielding when he met with his team Wednesday night.

“We don’t act like this,” Self said. “To me, somebody asked me how did Tyshawn dislocate his thumb? My reply was: I don’t care. It doesn’t make any difference to me. The fact is that it happened. The reason it happened was because a really small group of individuals put selfish motives ahead of what was really important.”

Self and senior guard Sherron Collins came to Taylor’s defense.

“It’s not just Tyshawn,” Collins said. “It was a group of individuals from both sides that let egos and pride get involved in something that could have been resolved. We let something small become something big. We as a team, we accept this all together. Not everyone had something to do with it, but we are all together as a team.”

According to the K.C. Star, the series of brawls Tuesday and Wednesdays were nothing new. The two sides have been fighting for years, but it was never done so publicly until this week:

The latest fights, which broke out Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, were the culmination of a turf war that has been simmering for years, sources close to both programs told The Kansas City Star on Wednesday.

The sources said that football and basketball players have been involved in numerous altercations with each other during the last five years. They just never went public — until now.

"It’s always been a feud between basketball and football players," said a recently graduated former KU football player who asked to remain anonymous. "It’s been an ongoing thing."

A recently departed former KU basketball player had the same experience.

"It’s about who’s more popular on campus with the girls and stuff like that," said the player, who also requested anonymity. "It’s escalated really bad now, but it’s always been there."

See how hard it is out here for a student-athlete? While the normal college student has to worry about frivolous stuff like paying for tuition and studying, the football/basketball players have to protect their rep. Can’t even imagine how difficult that must be.