"We are Virgnia Tech."

It’s fashionable for the sports media to mine the commonalities of public sentiment for some reason every fan should rally around a given team or player. Peyton Manning has never won a Super Bowl. Jerome Bettis is coming home to Detroit. George Mason is… well, George Mason.

In most instances, the echoes of the rally cry aren’t audible beyond the trivial realm of sports. But there are some exceptions. In 1970, 37 members of Marshall University’s football team perished in a plane crash, giving sports fans and non-sports fans alike a team to pull for in the season to follow. And even in 2002, 32 years after the Kent State shootings, people still seemed to sympathize with the Golden Flashes in their run to the Elite Eight.

I have been blown away by the maturity displayed by every Virginia Tech student who I’ve seen interviewed on T.V. this week, and their character is only accentuated when contrasted with the embarrassing behavior of a media which has callously disregarded the wishes of VaTech students and the families of the deceased by continuing to play this shithead punk’s mindless diatribe about nothing. And I literally had to turn off CNN this morning because the reporter would not stop trying to bait a student into blaming Virginia Tech’s administration. As the student pointed out, at the convocation, VaTech’s president received a thunderous ovation, louder than the reception for both President Bush and Governor Kayne. He also repeatedly asked that CNN stop showing pictures of that shithead punk (well, he didn’t use those words) and start focusing on the surviving students, the families, and school.

I certainly don’t mean to trivialize what’s happened at Virginia Tech by discussing it in the context of sports. But I think that this is one of those unique times the importance of athletics transcends the playing field. For better or worse, Americans’ love of sports has resulted in athletic competitions serving a cathartic role in times of national strife. The sight of NFL players sprinting on to the field holding American flags on their first Sunday back after 9-11 was more uplifting for many Americans than any politician’s words of solace. The thought of it alone still gives me goose bumps. And next fall, the eyes of the nation will be on Virginia Tech’s football team as they take the field. Every year I’m excited about the start of the college football season, but this year, I’ll be even more excited. I have a new team to root for, and I’m looking forward to it. At the risk of sounding Hokie, “We are Virginia Tech.”

(And now for my own diatribe: I am so damn sick of this shithead punk being described as “troubled” and “disturbed”. I’ll send my life savings, all $58 of it, to the first media personality that gets on the hair and says, “You know what: this kid was just a shithead who’s parents should be shot for not using a rubber." Stop describing him in a manner that makes him sound less responsible for what was obviously a premeditated, carefully planned massacre. Also, why do we need to continuously see the pictures of him? First, that’s exactly what he wanted: he knew his life wasn’t going to add up to a damn thing, so he goes on a shooting rampage for posthumous attention and the media is all too happy to cooperate by showing his inane videos against the wishes of the Virginia Tech community. Second, it’s amazing how someone with two Glocks in his hands still looks like a total freakin’ nerd. Again, the media: they act like this shithead is the most intimidating thing they’ve ever seen. No, he looks like a prepubescent choir boy who can’t even look intimidating when he’s got two Glocks in his hands. He epitomizes cowardice and weakness. Stop making me look at his sorry ass and start focusing on the unbelievable acts of heroism, the recovery of those that survived, and the families of those that didn’t.)

-Ryan