Note To Self: Never Ask Houston's Ed Oliver To Take His Jacket Off On The Sidelines. Ever.
#JacketGate!
As reported by Kayce’s best friend I’m not sure if you heard but she’s her best friend Laura Rutledge who is Kayce’s friend – Coach Major Applewhite viciously attacked one of his players on the sideline last night, forcibly removing half of the young man’s jacket, which is against the rules for sideline dress code.
Ed Oliver took extreme offense to this assault and all hell broke loose.
Oliver was so upset – and possibly injured from the beating he took at the hands of his coach – that he refused to come back out on the field.
Lot of people think Applewhite was singling Oliver out because he’s pissed that he won’t come back and play because he’s saving himself for the Draft (he’s projected to be a top 10 pick.) He seemed like he was good to go for the Tulane game, but he “didn’t feel comfortable” during warmups and decided to sit out instead.
Applewhite says he’s just trying to treat everybody equally.
“We just have a rule on the sideline that guys who are participating in the games and specifically starters, that they have jackets so they can stay [warm],” Applewhite said. “As a coach who has coached and played for years, you don’t want a thousand guys in jackets when it’s only 50 degrees outside. You want guys to stand up, be off the bench, be tough, and some guys had them early on. I asked them to take them off … and Ed had one, so I asked him to take it off because I don’t want to be unfair and unequal to the other guys, and you know, he got emotional. But he’s young. And that’s what happens. And he’s not playing, and that’s hard and that’s difficult. I don’t hold anything against anyone.”
“I went and talked to him at first, and I think he was upset that I took [the jacket] from him,” Applewhite said. “Then I wanted to go back and explain to him that I’ve asked other people tonight to take it off. ‘I just want you to understand that I’m not singling you out, I’m not picking you out. I asked other guys on the sideline to take it off. I’m trying to be fair.’ Because when you don’t, you have somebody else wearing it, then guys are like, ‘Well, Coach, why does he get to wear it and I don’t.’ So I’m just trying to be fair to our players on the sideline and that’s all.
“It’s really simple. There’s a rule for our team. The equipment managers explained it to them. Everybody follows the rule. I want everybody to follow the rule. I ask him to follow the rule. He was upset about it. I get it. We deal with these types of situations all the time. This is something that we’re gonna learn from and grow from.” [ESPN]
I get that. No star treatment. If you let the lottery picks wear jackets next thing you know you have the 4th string kicker wearing a jacket while reading his chem book on the bench. Everyone gets frostbite together. That’s called being a team.
And Applewhite has given Oliver full forgiveness for attempting to possibly rip his head off his shoulders and punt it into the student section if 73 teammates hadn’t of held him back.
So hopefully Houston can put this behind them and continue playing football while Oliver watches from the sidelines fantasizing about the first thing he’s going to buy with his signing bonus and what agent gives him the best chance to avoid going to Buffalo.