Sports Illustrated has been duped. The story about a West Virginia fan being photographed defecating on a seat during the 2007 Gator Bowl has made it into the latest issue. If you're not familiar with the story, it started on a Georgia Tech message board. The message included a link to a series of photos. As the story goes, a West Virginia fan entered a section of seats vacated by the Georgia Tech band, which was preparing to perform at halftime. The post claims the fan then dropped his drawers and defecated on one of the Georgia Tech band section seats. There were several reasons to doubt the story to begin with. There was no photographic evidence of the dirty deed or the alleged arrest of the fan afterward or proof that the person was a West Virginia fan. Many sites went with the story, including our friends at Deadspin. Then reader John alerted us Thursday evening about the entry on page 24 of the latest SI. John sends along word that George P. Burdell, the name associated with the photos, is actually a fictional character long used in practical jokes by Georgia Tech students and alumni. A check of "George P. Burdell" on your favorite search engine will provide background about the name's long and mirthful history. Sports Illustrated appears to have seen the item on the Internet and passed it along as fact in the "Sign of the Apocalypse" item on page 24.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Sports Illustrated Prints a Bunch of Crap
Sports Illustrated has been duped. The story about a West Virginia fan being photographed defecating on a seat during the 2007 Gator Bowl has made it into the latest issue. If you're not familiar with the story, it started on a Georgia Tech message board. The message included a link to a series of photos. As the story goes, a West Virginia fan entered a section of seats vacated by the Georgia Tech band, which was preparing to perform at halftime. The post claims the fan then dropped his drawers and defecated on one of the Georgia Tech band section seats. There were several reasons to doubt the story to begin with. There was no photographic evidence of the dirty deed or the alleged arrest of the fan afterward or proof that the person was a West Virginia fan. Many sites went with the story, including our friends at Deadspin. Then reader John alerted us Thursday evening about the entry on page 24 of the latest SI. John sends along word that George P. Burdell, the name associated with the photos, is actually a fictional character long used in practical jokes by Georgia Tech students and alumni. A check of "George P. Burdell" on your favorite search engine will provide background about the name's long and mirthful history. Sports Illustrated appears to have seen the item on the Internet and passed it along as fact in the "Sign of the Apocalypse" item on page 24.
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31 comments:
The look of disbelief on the fans faces are enough for me to believe the story is true and WVU fans have the worst reputation in the entire NCAA.
Uhhh...that would probably be true.
They have also been known to publicly urinate on their own field when given the chance.
GO HERD
Thats still not as bad as making up a ficticious movie and trying to cram it down the throats of every american. Shame on you Thundering Terds!
Neither of those previous 2 comments add anything of substance to the discussion, nor do they counter this posting by DaWiz.
Btw, congrats to Marshall on another stellar season.
I find it pretty funny that Marshall fans are trying to perpetuate this false story as true even though they are West Virginians themselves. Do they not understand that many people know that Marshall University is in West Virginia and this makes them look bad as West Virginians themselves? The story is obviously a fake. I can remember going to many PSU vs. WVU games and I saw a lot of bad things but this one is beyond belief.
WE ARE......PENN STATE!!
obviously not true. people will believe anything they read on the net.
You have to understand Marshall fans in order to understand their childish behavior. They only have a one game football season and a one game basketball season. Their season in both sports consists of their one game per year against WVU. I have heard Marshall fans say that they would rather go 1-11 if it meant beating WVU even more than going 10-2 and winning their conference. How sad is that? Their basketball team hasn;t had a winning season since Moby Dick was a minnow but they retain their coach because he beat WVU the past 2 seasons which is the most importatnt thing to them.
By the way, the story is a hoax.
Marshall is trying to act like they belong. Ignore them...
And the movie is not false. There were some changes made but for reasons like creating a character to represent a myriad of people so they wouldn't leave anybody out or single out one story as being better then others. The movie is fine.
I guess you can post anything you want on the internet as true and some people are going to believe it. I have looked at those pictures many times and can't find one reason why anyone could interpret the story is true.
The movie sucks. I saw it and I can tell you that it is a disgrace! Parts represent the true stoory however. Things like the facts that there was a plane crash, it did happen in Huntington WV, people did die. Other than that it is pretty much Hollywood garbage. The worst part is that the Marshall community doesn't seem to care that the story wasn't told correctly as long as those 75 dead people can garner the school some cash.
No offense, but just because the pictures are listed in an account as "George P. Burdell" means nothing other than Tech fan put them up. Most of the Burdell legend has nothing to do with making up fiction, it's just using his name for other's accomplishments. It's very common for Tech fans to link pictures or stories on forums as George P. Burdell or to use it as a alias while traveling, etc.
That story is pretty well vetted at this point. Someone really did take a crap in the Tech band section, and got arrested for it. The question is whether or not he was a WVU fan or just a local Jacksonville guy. Considering he's not wearing any WVU gear, that's the part I'd be arguing about.
1) The guy's wearing Black and Gold (Duh!) not Blue and gold. No WVU fan is going to wear the other teams colors at a bowl game...
2) He's sitting in the seat...all teh way down. You figure it out. If he's sharing it, he's wearing it!
Use your brains people...
To the idiots that believe this crap about the alleged WVU fan:
The guy in the pictures is wearing a freakin' GT t-shirt...it says "Black Rush." That is more proof there that he is actually a GT fan than the "proof" that he is a WVU fan.
I can't believe this story made it into Sports Illustrated.
1. The pics prove nothing.
2. Am I color blind, or is he wearing black and gold?
3. The people next to him aren't even paying attention to him. If someone was taking a dump 5 feet from you, you would be running for your lives.
4. WVU owns the state of Georgia since 2006. I guess I can understand why the state would start such a stupid story.
For those so inclined to actually look at the pictures, he's wearing a shirt that sports the logo of a local bar in Jacksonville. He's likely a yokel.
More importantly, believe what you want, but there is no way that guy is dropping a stink bomb. If anything, it looks more like he's bent over mixing liquor in his soda. But that story wouldn't be as amusing to the Tech faithful who got embarrassed in the 2nd half of the Gator Bowl.
Clearly there's room for debate whether the guy's a West Virginia fan. Based on the photos, he's not wearing gear from either school, and he's wearing a t-shirt from a local bar. He's probably a local.
But, and I've been posting this frequently on the Hive, the Tech message board where the story was initially posted, I was sitting next to the band section at the game. I didn't notice the guy in the section initially, but my friends and I did subsequently see a lot of activity in the area photographed, including the guy getting hauled out by security, and a stadium janitor kinda guy visiting the section briefly.
In short, the guy's probably not a WVU fan and he's certainly not a Tech fan, but the incident otherwise took place as described.
That is amazing...an SI fact checker needs to be fired.
Unbelievable!
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GT fans can say this was vetted all they want. The point is that nothing in the photographs displayed, the ones being cited as evidence indicates that this guy defecated on the seat. Nor does it indicate that the guy was a West Virginia fan, or that the people around him were recoiled by such an alleged happenstance, but that doesn't stop GT fans from saying it happened, using these phtographs and some anecdotal claims. Outrageous claims need outrageous evidence and there is no evidence here. If I'm a betting man, I lay at least 7-1 it didn't happen.
Section 115, Row EE, Seat 18. That's where my ticket was, though I think I was actually sitting in seat 20, with one guy between me and the aisle. Across the aisle was the GT band section; the tubas, to be specific
I swear to God that me, my girlfriend, and the other friend that was with me saw the commotion in the section, we saw the security people haul the guy in those photos out of the stadium, and we saw the stadium guy come down to clean the section. We saw people pointing at the location pictured, and we saw them talking to the cops.
I don't know why people are so adamant that this didn't happen, and I don't know what more I can say to convince people that CLEARLY something DID happen. I was there, about 10 rows back and 10 seats over from the whole thing, and while I didn't see the actual poop, I saw enough corrobrating evidence to make me believe the story as presented, except for the fan orientation of the Mad Pooper.
I read the story as it was originally posted on the Hive, and I didn't even get the sense that the poster was trying to slander WVU fans, he just made a faulty assumption based on the guy's actions. (No matter who the other team was, it would make the most sense for the Mad Pooper to be an opposing fan in this situation, so it's not a completely wild assumption, but it does appear that he was wrong and it was just a drunk local. That does not, however, invalidate the entire story, as so many people WHO WEREN'T THERE seem to want to do.)
"Didn't even get the sense that the poster was trying to slander WVU fans". He said he saw a guy standing with his pants down and knew it was a WVU fan because his g/f, a VT grad had warned him. Then he sees the guy drop his drawers. Strange there are no pics of this since he has camera in hand, Now we have a pic of a guy sitting in a seat and several of him standing. The one pictured where he is pulling up on the too big in the waist jeans is the evidence. WOW, The young mother sitting there with her two children does not seem all that concerned. The poster says the guy was arrested. Show us a police report or shut-up.
seriously.....all of these "witnesses" and I have yet to see a police report. When I see a police report then I will believe that it actually happened. Then someone will have to convince me that it was a WVU fan because no fan that I have ever known would go to a bowl game without wearing his team colors.
just to let you know georgia tech's colors are not black and gold
I can't force myself to read that SI Story, the gators and poo, a match made in hell.
I vote for you on some of the awards BTW. I know how hard you worked on your site
ok genius what are GT's colors then? Cuz last time i checked yellow jackets are uh gold/yellow and well BLACK!
There is NOT a look of disbelief on the other fans faces as was previously said by a jealous Herd or GT fan. In fact, NO ONE has a look of shock on their face, which would be the case if it wasn't fake. Only a couple of people are even looking at him. If he did what he was supposed to have done, someone would have seen him, pointed and said "oh my God" and then everyone in the section would be looking at him, and you'd actually see a reaction from the crowd, which is non-existent. Furthermore, the photos dont show him doing anything but hovering over the seat. What a coincidence that he had his camera read to take those pictures. Who would be taking several pictures of some guy just standing above a seat??? This was so fake it's not even funny. And of course, he has no WVU gear on whatsoever.
I especially like the lady in yellow a few rows behind who just keeps on eating her nachos. Don't you think if you just watched a guy pinch one in public you might lose your appetite?
A story like that's gotta be true. Especially when you consider the type of people involved. I mean Rednecks for all you Rednecks that couldn't understand my point.
Just another example of the sportsters taking an unsubstantiated rumor and running with it as if it were fact.
I do like the Thundering Turds comment here, though.
Marsha fans will do anything to upset WVU fans. They suck so bad and even the movie was beaten out by Charlotte's Web!! A freakin cartoon!! They stole the "We Are"....from Penn State. That was just another made up thing about the movie. Hey Marsha fans....we're going to show you what a real championship looks like!! Great job this year btw.....3-9!!! You guys rock!! LMAOOOOOO!!!
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