Wrigley Field Update: We're only going one way.

by Joe Kutsunis on Nov 19, 2010 12:43 PM CST

Vindication, thy name is Big Ten. It finally became obvious to someone with power that the situation at Wrigley Field was unacceptable and terribly dangerous. The Big Ten head office announced today that for Saturday's game against Northwestern, no matter the quarter or the team with possession, the offense will always be headed away from the end zone located in right field. All kick offs will be toward right field, and the benches will switch sides at half time.

This is now officially an embarrassment for Northwestern, and in all probability, the Cubs. I am still shocked at how poorly this was planned from the very beginning, and that it was ever considered safe at all to have a brick wall so close to an end zone. At least now we know no one will get hurt, and in all likelihood this will be the last college football game at Wrigley Field, ever.

My hats off to the Big Ten for being smart enough and man enough to step in and prevent what could have been a tragedy on Saturday, at worst now it is just an embarrassment.

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Nice to have company screaming with me from the rooftop (no pun intended).

Disasterpiece. Cock-up. Jackassery. Pick one, it describes this situation aptly.

Stagg Field would have been more acceptable. Wow.

St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.

by Donut King on Nov 19, 2010 12:52 PM CST reply actions

Physics

Someone should explain the 2nd and 3rd law of motion (Newtownian Physics) to those guys

A football player running into the wall at fullspeed is no worse (force and momentum wise) than two football players running into each other at full speed.

by PurdueEnginerd on Nov 19, 2010 1:05 PM CST reply actions

Ummm… sure that might be technically correct… but you seem to missing a big fact.

Walls don’t have give, humans do. The deceleration you’d experience hitting a wall is far worse than you’d feel when hitting a human – because you’d have some extra space to spread that time over.

by jmantemp on Nov 19, 2010 1:38 PM CST up reply actions

And certainly...

…no worse than a non-padded/helmeted outfielder running into the Wrigley brick wall sans-padding at full speed.

by Chadnudj on Nov 19, 2010 3:02 PM CST up reply actions

Everyone knows it's so much safer

to run into ivy sans pads than other pads all padded up cause um well I’m sure there’s sound reasoning out there somewhere.

"The two most important things in life: good friends and a strong bullpen." - Bob Gibson

by ducttape16 on Nov 19, 2010 6:09 PM CST up reply actions

I agree...

…that this is a farce. But Illinois knew the configuration from the get-go and still signed off on it. So no sure how this is all on Northwestern. It’s definitely on the Big Ten for deciding to change things up at the last second when they too knew the configuration in advance.

by GoAUpher on Nov 19, 2010 3:05 PM CST reply actions