Once A Linebacker...

It's been three days, so I assume that anyone who cares about this already saw it, but on the off chance that someone did miss it (despite ESPN creating a new network just for this clip), check this out: Ref Decks South Carolina Quarterback

It is really not a very good tackle and as a former linebacker at Kentucky, Wilbur Hackett, Jr. should have known better. You need to wrap up; don't just expect the guy to go down when you hit him high. But then, he did have the element of surprise going for him, since there is no way the QB thought the ref would shuffle his feet into position and drop him with a fore-arm.

This reminds me of the scene in Rushmore where Bill Murray is walking through the school on his cell phone, smoking a cigarette and suddenly jumps into a basketball game with little kids, chases the ball-handler down and swats an 8-year-old's shot off the court before calmly continuing on his way. I couldn't find a good clip of it, but Check it out here (skip to about 1:58 if you don't want to watch the whole trailer, though I can't imagine why not).

The best part of this is clearly the fact that a referee appears to have sized up a ball carrier, used textbook footwork to get into tackling position - knees bent, arms at the ready - and delivered a Madden-style truck-stick tackle inside the redzone in a game that was eventually lost by a touchdown. But the second best part is that the SEC looked into the matter and ruled that it was inadvertent contact.

Which is similar to when I walked into the bank with a gun and a ski mask, demanded they give me all their money, and inadvertently robbed it.

Or perhaps the SEC officials were confused what "inadvertently" means. You know, like how "flammable" and "inflammable" basically mean the same thing. Maybe "inadvertently means "in a careful and deliberate manner" just like "inadvertently" does.