One of college football’s most common traditions is that when teams run onto the field before the game, their cheerleading teams lead the way with flags.
These are usually reasonably well-choreographed affairs. I have never cheer-led, but I imagine one of the things you’re supposed to avoid is RUNNING INTO THE OTHER TEAM’S CHEERLEADERS in the midst of your routine. And that takes us to State College, where Penn State’s and Iowa’s cheerleaders had a real conflict on Saturday night.
Flag guys mixing it up. It's on! pic.twitter.com/upiqiLNO7T
— Chad Leistikow (@ChadLeistikow) November 5, 2016
Oh!
CHAOS at Beaver Stadium as the team flags collide. No one was hurt -- but many were booed. #PSUvsIowa pic.twitter.com/05QSWh7EtI
— Josh Moyer (@ESPNJoshMoyer) November 5, 2016
This was a veritable mix-up. Were words said between the flag bearers? I’m unsure, but I’m positive I’m going to spend the rest of the night dreaming up the kinds of conversations they might have had during this pile-up. Whether this was a fight or merely a collision does not matter. (For all we know, it was a collision.)
little bit of a scuffle there with the flags pic.twitter.com/awFTvR3OZ9
— Chelsea Dallman (@chelseadallman) November 5, 2016
Here’s a video that doesn’t quite show the moment of impact but gives us a sense of how the flags’ paths collided. It must’ve been quite a scene, though I’m not sure how nobody foresaw this. Or maybe they did, and they just wanted the moment.
.@USMC Immanuel Iyke leads the team onto the field! #WeAre pic.twitter.com/OppEFPg1Gp
— Onward State (@OnwardState) November 5, 2016
What a sport.