Griz fans are awesome

In the final media poll for the FCS, everybody voted for Eastern Washington in first place, except for one person who voted for Delaware in protest of that fourth down spot call. That man was the sports information director for Towson University. Being naturally a little peeved, a good friend of mine sent him an email and got this response:

I am responding to you because you asked me this question in a polite manner. Surprisingly, there are many people have e-mailed me and called me all sorts of names.

Here is my reasoning:

I truly believe that Delaware was beaten by an egregious administrative error by the officials. Mario Brown was clearly short of the first down in the fourth quarter. If the chains had not been moved, I firmly believe that he would have short of the first down and Delaware would have taken over on downs.

Although Eastern Washington won the game, Delaware dominated the first 40 minutes and Delaware dominated the game statistically. If the ball had been spotted correctly, Delaware would have won.

When the ball was spotted erroneously, it seemed like more than the UD defense could handle. They had been on the field for a long time.

I didn’t mean to disrespect Eastern Washington in any way. They won the trophy and they are the national champions. Their impressive come-from-behind rally was outstanding. The fact that it was accomplished against a terrific defense made it even more impressive.

Polls are opinions and not everyone is going to agree.

Enjoy the celebration.

Dan

Dan O'Connell
Associate Director of Athletic Media Relations
Towson University

But it gets better, a whole lot better. Remember when I wrote this little column about how it's dumb when people "root for their conference," well apparently Griz fans didn't get the memo. Here's the rest of Dan's email...

PS – Here is a sampling of some of the other emails I have received:

If you in fact did vote Delaware #1 would you mind elaberating on how or even why? If you missed the box score Eastern Washington 21- Delaware 19 for the National Championship. I would think as a non bias voter you would want to keep some integrity in the results of the poll. If not you should refrain from voting and spare Towson the embarassment.

Bill Solomon CPA
University of Montana Class of 1983

That's right, the bear claws of Griz Nation have descended upon Griz nation, much like they did to me when I wrote less than favorable columns about the University of Montana. Its crazy and awesome how Griz fans will go to bat for EWU over something as silly as a media poll. My hat is tipped to you Griz fans!