UMass, “ZooMass” and the Post-Super Bowl Incident

By James Bucklin

AMHERST – Super Bowl XLVI, February 5, 2012. Tom Brady’s New England Patriots had just lost to Eli Manning’s New York Giants in the final battle for NFL season supremacy for the second time in the past five seasons. A debilitating safety in the game’s opening minutes and a hefty dose of catch-able dropped balls left New England in utter shock.

Television newscorrespondents stood with microphones in hand and broadcasted fan reactions from all of the hot spots. The streets of Boston were curiously silent. Foxboro, Mass., the home of the Patriot’s Gillette Stadium, was surprisingly tame. But about 95 miles away from Gillette, in the southwest living areas of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, there were thousands of chanting students, combusting smoke bombs, fist fights and police officers on horses.

A wild scene in Amherst indeed, but the most interesting part of it all may have been that the incident at UMass was not exactly unexpected.

Fairly recently, a similar incident in the same location had followed the assassination of Osama Bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Southwest residents and others flooded outside of their dorms to chant different slogans at the tops of their lungs, namely the chant of “U – S – A,” a chant that was revived on February 5^th among many others not suitable for all audiences.   

Also, students were sent warning e-mails from Student Government Association (SGA) President Yevin Roh and the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life, Jean Kim encouraging students to “keep it classy for our UMass community” and “continue representing the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the same positive manner that you have demonstrated throughout this academic year.”

Even New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz got in on the action releasing a PSA to students on the UMassNation blog telling them to “watch the game, be safe, enjoy the parties and don’t hurt anyone or anything.”

The consequences that came with a failure to comply to these instructions were also included in the e-mails. Vice Chancellor Kim informed students that if crowds did congregate after the game, the police would monitor the situation and act accordingly.

“Please remember that if the police deem it necessary to issue a dispersal order, once that dispersal order is read, it is no longer acceptable to be just hanging around,” Kim added. “All students must return to their residence halls. Any students who continue to congregate after the dispersal order has been read will be considered contributing to the safety issue and may be subject to arrest and administrative sanctions.”

Well, the police did deem in necessary to issue a dispersal order. And once that dispersal order was read students continued to hang around, which the police clearly saw as no longer acceptable.

Some students continued to congregate, with hundreds of lights from smart phone cameras lit above their heads, which provided the footage that has sparked hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits since that night. Smoke bomb explosions drew gasps from the crowd, and seemed to ignite the ire from some of the rowdier students, 13 of which were arrested.

This sent Kim back to her e-mail account to address the students the following Wednesday, expressing her disappointment in the “illegal and disruptive actions that a small minority of our students committed,” and that “They have contributed to the perpetuation of a reputation for UMass that belongs
to the past and with which the vast majority of students do not identify.”

Thus is the story of the UMass Amherst Super Bowl riot, but questions still remain. Why has this activity become expected after widely emotional moments? And if it is expected, does that reputation for UMass truly belong to the past?

“ZooMass” still relevant?

For decades UMass students have been referring to the campus as “ZooMass” or simply “The Zoo.” The moniker likens the university to a campus full of animals, known for their incessant partying and reckless behavior. While some students are still fond of using this term to describe their temporary home, Vice Chancellor Kim thinks it is a nickname that should be dropped and forgotten.

“I think the ZooMass moniker is outdated and it is not helpful,” Kim said. “It does not fairly and accurately reflect UMass Amherst. I think it’s a disservice to the students here that that moniker stays on and I don’t know why it does.”

And there is certainly some truth to that. UMass Amherst, a former high-ranked staple of the Princeton Review top party school survey, which has long been the go-to spot for that information, did not list UMass anywhere in their top-20 of 2012.

But the moniker is still very much alive. In October of 2011, UMass Amherst student and rapper Paul Markham released his song “Welcometo the Zoo” which features lyrics such as “Welcome to the Zoo where we drink beer, getting messed up but we still think clear.” The video has almost 70,000 hits on YouTube and can be heard blaring in the speakers of several parties on and off campus every weekend.

And the party atmosphere has caused the Puffton Village apartments, located a half mile from campus, to implement new rules to preventsuch disturbances. (Link provides comedic extremist view. NSFW.)  On Friday nights and all day on Saturdays, Puffton Village does not allow any car without a resident sticker to enter the apartment complex, nor do they allow any furniture, such as tables or lawn chairs, out doors. Puffton Village officials have also shut down bus service during those times and implemented extra security guards to monitor the complex on those nights.

The “ZooMass” moniker also surfaced on national television for the potential ears of 113 million people on the night of February 5^th, as Patriots safetyJames Ihedigbo announced “ZooMass” as his college during NBC’s Super Bowl starter introductions. Vice Chancellor Kim thought that NBC airing Ihedigbo using the nickname “was really unfortunate. He’s one of those alumni that is not living in the current reality.”

While Kim does not deny the existence of the term among the student body and alumni, she does say that the conversations she has with students don’t reflect the name, and that if one were to poll every current student on campus that 90 percent would say that they did not identify with “ZooMass.”

“I think we have, by and large, great students here who are bright, who are committed, do the right things, who have the right values, who are great leaders,” Kim said. “The notion of Zoo… Mass. I don’t see what would ever be a positive connotation about that.”

At the same time, Kim does not want student’s college experience to be bland or void of fun.

“It’s not a monastery right? People should have fun.”

The psychology of riots

“So… how are things at UMass?”

This was a question that was proposed to Linda R. Tropp, Ph.D., UMass Amherst psychology professor and Director of the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program at UMass, by many of her friends and colleagues from different parts of the country days after the events following the Super Bowl.

Tropp believes that the idea of being part of a group has a great deal to do with how people act in certain situations, and says that there is a lot of social psychological research that proves that people tend to act differently in groups than they would as an individual. “There’s something about being in a large group that tends to be associated with less inhibited behavior,” Tropp said. “People feel freer when they see the people around them acting in more free ways and that’s where things like riots can happen.”

If you take that state of freedom associated with being a member of a group, and couple it with the high level of emotions following a sporting event of such magnitude, it would make sense that an event like the Super Bowl would ignite such a response. Tropp says that riots of any nature are usually popping up in “emotion-filled moments,” and that emotion can come from a sense of identity when it’s in a sports fan environment.

“If it’s just an interest or a hobby usually you don’t have that investment that an identity has,” Tropp said. “You don’t just like the Red Sox. You are part of Red Sox Nation. There’s this thing associated with it. It becomes who you are and becomes your identity and you become more motivated on behalf of the group to promote your group’s interests and goals.”

And promoting can come in the form of loud chanting and unruly behavior, which is what we saw on the night of February 5^th, but why did it only happen at UMass? And why only in the Southwest residential area? “That’s a darn good question,” Tropp said. “I don’t know if I have the answer to that. I’ve spent a lot more time in academic buildings than I have at Southwest.”

But Tropp did mention that she has spoken to undergraduates who feel that there ate local cultures to the different dormitory areas on the campus, and that Southwest has a tendency towards partying and rowdiness, which could stem from it’s heavy freshman population. Tropp also expressed the old adage that one bad apple can always spoil a bunch.

“It’s not even necessarily the crowd became violent,” Tropp said. “It could be one person resorted to violence and that provoked a violent response or led other people to think that violence would be okay in that context. That’s when violence erupts. It’s not like 1,000 people in Southwest all decided, ‘yeah! Let’s scream!’ People just felt a need to congregate, to share this experience because it was an impactful event for their identity group and it kind of takes on a life of it’s own from there.”

“I think we’re just human and we get caught up in the moment,” she added.

Police involvement

Because of the mild expectation that something may occur that needed to be controlled, UMass campus police, Town of Amherst police and Massachusetts state police were all in the general area of the events when they transpired. Some students have stated that the presence of the police may have sent some of the instigators of the riot into a further frenzy, but Kim thinks that the police responded in the correct manner.

“I thought they did a very good job in preparing and also dispersing the crowd,” Kim said. “We would have allowed students to just yell and scream and celebrate if there were no violent behavior and unfortunately there was and fairly early on in the gathering.”

According to Kim, several fights broke out amongst the students and that is when the decision was made that the environment had become unsafe and law enforcement should become involved. That involvement was in the form of mounted officers and crowd dispersing smoke grenades that popped and echoed through the Southwest area.

Campus police could not be reached for comment on the matter.

Win or lose

Tropp mulled over the idea of the possibility of a riot even if the Patriots had beaten the Giants in the Super Bowl. “I think the potential is definitely there,” she said. “I think we engage in collective behavior as both sources or pride and sources of disappointment. “

That would explain the outbreaks in Southwest over both the loss of the state’s beloved professional football team, and the murder of an abhorred symbol of terrorism towards America.

Despite the two-way street of possibilities, Kim does not expect another incident such as the night of February 5^th anytime soon, as Kim’s image of UMass continues to take form towards a more tame, studious environment, and away from the zoo-like party school of the past.

“I really think that each year our students are better prepared and more mature,” Kim said. “I don’t think that it would happen again. The aftermath is that I think lots of students will (look back and) say ‘well, that was really stupid’.”

It’s probably safe to say that the thirteen students who were arrested will be among them.

Kevin Blackistone visits UMass Campus

Photo by Christopher Noreika

Sports journalism and sports management students on the UMass Amherst campus had the honor and privilege of meeting one of the most prominent voices in sports yesterday, Kevin Blackistone. Blackistone teaches at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and his accolades in sports journalism are impressive to say the least. But what he is best known for are his frequent appearances in ESPN's debate show Around the Horn.

Blackistone would later be a panel member in a discussion called Amateur Hour: the Commercialization of College Athletics that night, but took some time during the day to field the questions of students who hope to work in his field following their student lives.

When asked about his television appearances, it was clear Blackistone preferred long form writing to the quick way he must deliver his thoughts and opinions on ATH. With a column he can craft his words and carefully express his feelings on hot topics. On TV there is "no way (he) can explain it all on a sound bite," Blackistone says. But he still enjoys the experience. "That's my escape," Blackistone said. "It's entertainment. It's fun."

Topics of discussion ranged all over the sports journalism map, including one subject that is always prominent in such discussions, how to ask the tough questions. One thing Blackistone wanted students to remember is that, especially in professional sports, the athlete is expecting those questions to be asked. The important thing is to know how to ask them, and to be respectful when doing so. "The great thing about professional athletes is that most of them are professional," Blackistone said.

Photo by Christopher Noreika

Blackistone got his start in journalism at the news desk, not the sports desk, and was asked if that was something he would suggest for aspiring journalists even if their main goal is to end up in sports. Blackistone encouraged students to "just study journalism." In Blackistone's opinion, it is more likely that a sports writer gets tapped on the shoulder by an editor and told to do a news story, than it is for a news writer to be sent to cover a sports story. Therefore, sports journalists should always be prepared to make the crossover if needed.

Other interesting facts about Blackistone students got insight on were his preferred "dream jobs" that he would like if he took an alternate career path, which were a jazz musician and a documentary filmmaker. He also admitted to being a "Watergate baby," listing that story, like many successful journalists, as his inspiration to get into the trade. Blackistone also expressed the importance of his experiences abroad. Not as a journalist, but just "as a citizen of the world."

Some of his closing advice to the group of students yesterday was that "the most important thing you can do is get experience," and that it doesn't matter where or how. "Write for anybody who will let you write," Blackistone said.

And when looking for a job in the future, "Don't take no for an answer."

NBA Team Name Musical Chairs

David Stern and the NBA finally found a buyer for the New Orleans Hornets in Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints. As Benson completely takes over that city he is also interested in taking over the name of a team over in Utah who call themselves the Jazz. Benson has expressed interest in bringing the name back to New Orleans, where the Jazz played up until 1979. Unfortunately for him, Utah has no interest in changing.

"It belongs to Utah," Stern said Monday, as reported by The Times-Picayune. "I wouldn't make it such an important point. There are many things that are indigenous to the area. I'm sure there will be some wonderful (suggested) nicknames."
Via Deseret News

The plot thickens. Since the Hornets are openly interested in a name change, the team currently playing (if you could call in that) games in Charlotte, the Bobcats, would be interested in bringing that name back to Charlotte, where the Hornets played up until 2002.

With new Hornets owner Tom Benson saying he might rename the team, there’s been more speculation about whether the Bobcats would be interested in acquiring the Hornets nickname. Bobcats management can’t comment on that.

But sources familiar with NBA procedure say it would take a minimum of two years from the time a team requested a name change until there actually was a change. That’s in part about giving uniform-supplier Adidas time to adjust to new logos and looks.
Via the Charlotte Observer

With all of this name game madness going on, isn't what needs to happen here fairly obvious? A three-way trade between the Jazz, Bobcats and Hornets is in order. First of all, the Utah Jazz need to give up that name. It makes no sense. Jazz music really originally exploded in New Orleans, and the name should truly belong to that city. Compensation can be protected draft picks and cash considerations. Or maybe some players. Who cares. The Bobcats have the worst record in the East (7-53) and the Hornets hold that same honor in the West (19-42).

In return, New Orleans will receive the name Jazz, and Charlotte will get to call themselves the Hornets once again. All is right with the world. The Jazz can name themselves... wait a minute. This has to be a four-way trade! The team currently known as the Jazz play their games in Salt Lake City, Utah. So what better name for the team from Salt Lake than the Lakers? Los Angeles really only has that name because the team moved there from Minneapolis which lies near the Great Lakes. So some of those assets going to Utah really should go to Los Angeles as they trade their Lakers team name to Utah. Then the Los Angeles franchise can adopt the name the LA Celebrities. Or maybe a play on Hollywood; The Los Angeles Woodies. That city is filled with creative people, they should be able to come up with something.

So it's decided. A four-trade is the only way to solve this. The Lakers receive real applicable assets from Charlotte, Utah and New Orleans. Then after name swaps we will have the New Orleans Jazz, the Utah Lakers and the Charlotte Hornets. I hope David Stern reads this so he can help put this trade together. But that would probably just end in him intervening and vetoing the whole ordeal.

Lamar Odom and the Blame Game

On Monday the Dallas Mavericks and two-time NBA Champion and 2011 Sixth Man of the Year Lamar Odom parted ways with Odom becoming officially deactivated for the remainder of the season and playoffs. Odom will still be under contract with the Mavs until the off-season but will not be eligible to compete in any games for Dallas or any other franchise as the deadline to sign players that can be active in the playoffs passed on March 23. Considering Odom's immense talent, this is not a common move for a team like the Mavericks who are defending the banner they hung in the rafters of the American Airlines Center in Dallas signifying their NBA Finals victory over the Miami Heat last June. But to anyone following the Mavericks and the NBA, this really doesn't come as too big of a surprise. This had been building all season and there are many factors at play here, so where do we point the finger?

Lamar Odom: Not too many people knew this before this whole ordeal began, but Lamar Odom is a pretty sensitive guy. So one thing that cannot be ignored here is the tragedy that took place in Odom's life before the season started and in the years before. Odom lost an infant son back in 2006, and this past July Odom had to deal with two more deaths. His 24-year-old cousin died, and the day after Odom attended that funeral a vehicle he was in collided with a motorcycle, the bike then came in contact with a 15-year-old boy who did not survive the incident. Nobody can blame Odom for being emotional after that summer, and when it was announced that the team he loved to play for, the Los Angeles Lakers, had a trade lined up that would send Odom to the New Orleans Hornets as part of the package that would bring Chris Paul to L.A., Odom was very upset. He could be heard crying on Stephen A. Smith's radio show following this news.

As we know now, that trade did not happen, but Odom took the news as an insult and held a grudge against the Lakers. That's how he ended up on the Mavericks. After all of this, it's understandable how one could end up performing beneath his normal production. But that being said, you still have to do your job. Despite receiving sparing minutes behind superstar Dirk Nowitski, there is no excuse for not giving the game your full efforts, and if you can't do that, you can't pretend that you are, and lead a team on. This is what led to the confrontation between Odom and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban the day before the two parties separated.

Mark Cuban / Rick Carlisle: You can't ignore the authority figures above Odom in this ordeal. Apparently what sparked the separation was the halftime confrontation between Cuban and Odom Sunday night where Cuban asked him, "Are you in or are you out?" Clearly, this was a show of distaste from Cuban in Odom's lack of effort and productive play. But couldn't he have had that discussion in private and not thrown Odom under the bus in front of his teammates? Seems as if Cuban could have handled that situation better, but Cuban handling sensitive situations with little to no sensitivity of his own is not news to anyone.

And Odom is a guy who is used to playing big minutes. Even in the sixth man role for the Lakers he was playing 30-plus minutes every game. One possibility for Odom's underwhelming play could have just been Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks not understanding how to use Odom, and thus not giving him the minutes he is used to. Odom is a very versatile player. He can't be seen as any one guy's backup. The Mavericks didn't seem to understand this, and Lakers captain Kobe Bryant would agree.

“It’s tough,” Bryant said. “He comes to a team that’s pretty much set, you know what I mean? So it’s hard for him to find his niche. The fans, they don’t really understand what he does or how he can do it, you know what I mean?

“I hope they don’t unlock that mystery. I know. I know how to use him and to use his skill set and this, that and the other. But with this team, the roster that they had being pretty much set, it’s tough for him to be able to find his groove here.”

So maybe some blame can be pointed at the higher ups. But maybe Odom just has to be in L.A. to be happy an successful. Maybe Odom should take Metta World Peace's advice.

David Stern: We can't forget that the reason that Odom didn't end up in New Orleans was because the Hornets are owned by the league, since the franchise wasn't making money, and because of that NBA commissioner David Stern took over as the action force behind the Hornets. During the Chris Paul negotiations, Stern had the last say on trades, and he vetoed that one after the teams involved had come to terms. But why did it even get that far? Follow me here. If the Hornets were in negotiations with the Lakers and Rockets about a trade that involved the face of their franchise, shouldn't Stern have been kept in the loop there? And if Stern knew about the serious negotiations and that there was a possibility of an agreement, why wouldn't he have stopped the talks before all the parties accepted the terms? If Stern had done his job and intervened before the three teams all did the leg work to put that deal together, the trade never would have been announced in the media, and Odom would have never had to have heard from a television set that the Lakers aimed to trade him.

Lamar Odom's lost season, the Mavericks diminishing championship defense hopes and this whole messy situation was the result of a large number of factors, and David Stern, Mark Cuban and Odom himself are the entities at the heart of it all.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and T.J. Quinn visit UMass

Two of the most prominent investigative sports journalists of our time, Mark Fainaru-Wada (author of Game of Shadows) and T.J. Quinn (ESPN investigative reporter) came to visit the UMass Amherst sports journalism concentration students this past Thursday. Both guys broke major stories during the Barry Bonds and BALCO era and continue to do so today. Students got invaluable insight and advice from Mark and T.J. as they covered a wide range of topics, told stories and shared several memorable moments with the aspiring journalists in attendance. Here is some of the best stuff from the inspiring visit.

"Any reporting should be investigative reporting." - T.J. Quinn
In other words, always do your homework. With any project you're working on you should have some background on what you're getting into and should be looking to acquire as much information as you possibly can. Fainaru-Wada told a story of his colleague Lance Williams getting very important information on Greg Anderson for Game of Shadows by calling his grandmother. "Do more work than you need to," Quinn said.

"Being informed is a really key piece in getting people to talk to you." - Mark Fainaru-Wada
Both special guests talked about constantly talking to people and gathering information. According to the guys, a good beat writer or reporter is always talking to someone in uniform. And not usually the big name guys. The "little guys" always know what's going on and are more willing to talk. Once you get a tip from one of them, that's when you can build on that. Quinn says he still hates cold calling people and talking to people who don't want to talk to him, but says you just have to "Make the phone call. Knock on the door. Do it."

Both Quinn and Fainaru-Wada stressed several times about the importance of knowing as much as possible about someone before talking to them, specifically for a profile. The more you can present to them that you already know, the more likely they will confirm it and continue to talk.

"Documents are gold." - T.J. Quinn
When talking about acquiring information and the processes that come with it, Quinn was very adamant about how important documents are in the process. He mentioned having to tell several reporters that the way to get your hands on documents is to simply go to the courthouse and ask for them. They had no idea that was the case. Quinn also told a story about names that were crossed off the Mitchell Report. If you look at the list online the names aren't view-able. But when you have the actual document on your hand, you could flip it over and see a name like Gary Sheffield right there. "There is no electronic substitute," Quinn said.

"Writing is overrated. Reporting is everything." - Mark Fainaru-Wada
Fainaru-Wada told the class about how much pride he has in his writing when he first started his career, and then realized that worse writers who were better reporters were far more valuable. People are reading for your information, not your vocabulary. Fainaru-Wada values a great reporter who is an average writer over a great writer who is an average reporter.

Create your own opportunities
The guys suggested always looking at every possible angle regardless of your position and what your current assignments are. When Quinn spoke about being a beat writer for the Mets he mentioned how he needed to be doing game recaps and multiple feature and other columns simultaneously. So having story ideas is always a good thing, even if it hasn't been assigned by an editor. "If you want to do a good story nobody will say they don't want it," Fainaru-Wada said.

They're real people
Quinn and Fainaru-Wada may seem like information gaining robots, but their personalities could be seen instantly when sitting down in a relaxed classroom setting. Quinn frequently cracked deadpan jokes and Fainaru-Wada seemed to find it difficult to refrain from profanity. Way more laughs filled that Bartlett Hall room than one would have expected at the beginning of the night and some tears almost joined it as well.

When recalling the experience of almost receiving jail time for not revealing his sources to a federal grand jury, Fainaru-Wada was very emotional, especially when reminiscing about the start of he and Quinn's friendship. When Fainaru-Wada was going through that tough process, Quinn and his colleagues started a website to support their current journalistic rivals, and that kindness started what turned into a friendship.

There was no question in Fainaru-Wada's mind during that time that he would not reveal his sources, and his sympathy for one man, Troy Ellerman, who did end up serving jail time for his involvement in the story was a show of humane compassion.

Fainaru-Wada had to stop himself mid-sentence multiple times as he was overcome by the moment of sharing his touching story with the class. Quinn's actions and Fainaru-Wada's reaction to this moment show that these guys are actual people and not the cold-hearted cut-throat information hounds that their critics on Twitter may think they are.