If you watched Saturday night’s Ole Miss vs. LSU game on ESPN, you might have seen a play by Bo Wallace that most would say is dirty. At around the 8:34 mark of the third quarter, Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace rolls out for a bootleg pass. Seeing that no receivers were getting open, he decided to run the ball. He proceeds to be tackled around the LSU 43 yard line towards the sideline. After the play, Wallace can be seen getting up and headbutting a LSU defensive back Jamal Adams. Regardless of how severe the headbutt was, as the argument from many defenders of Bo will go, a headbutt is a headbutt. It was also intentional, there was no reason for Bo to have to throw his shoulder/head towards the LSU player. The official, who is standing a little less than 3 yards away looking right at the incident, immediately throws his flag, and Bo is issued an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty that is offset by an LSU player running across the field with the Landshark symbol used by Ole Miss defenders. If you wish to view the headbutt, I’ve added a gif of the headbutt along with the full video with alternate angles.
Now this brings us to the comparison that I would like to make. What is so different between what Bo Wallace did (and only got flagged for) and what Dillon Day did (and got suspended for). Now against the same team, Dillon Day stomped on two LSU players during the course of the game and was suspended the next game vs. Texas A&M. The argument against Day was, “He clearly showed intent to stomp on the player, therefore he should be suspended!” Les Miles even sent a letter and tape to the SEC offices asking for them to take action, which they did by suspending Day for one game. This outrage was sparked by a Saturday Down South video showing the two plays in question.
Now this video sparked a storm of criticism for not only Dillon Day, but also for Dan Mullen. People sent threatening tweets to Dillon Day, some even calling for him to be killed the next game he was in. That’s certainly an extreme view, but I’m curious as to why the outrage was so extreme for Dillon Day’s incident yet is so minuscule for Bo’s headbutt.
Finally, I’d like to ask the national media why they aren’t reacting the same way? A quick google search shows much harsher language towards the Dillon Day incident than to the Bo Wallace incident. Why is that? Why is the national media not up in arms calling for Bo Wallace to be suspended? He broke the rules, clearly showed no remorse in the video, and has yet to answer for his actions. Stand up and take a stand. Someone call for the SEC or Coach Hugh Freeze to suspend him for at least one half of the game vs. Auburn this week. If nothing happens, then the media is saying that the flag on the field was enough punishment for a headbutt.
To close, I leave you with the images of a google web search for “Dillon Day Stomps on Player” and “Bo Wallace Headbutts Player” so that you can compare the headlines/content for each.