College Football Means Finding Something To Get Mad About

Key Points:

• The Kansas-Missouri college football rivalry resumed with Missouri winning 38-21, but the game was marked by controversy after Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz directed a needless late touchdown to taunt Kansas over a pregame video referencing the violent Bleeding Kansas conflict of the 1850s.
• Drinkwitz criticized Kansas for stirring up historical grievances on 9/11, calling the rivalry "weird" and emphasizing that football should be about the game, not deep historical conflicts; he expressed ambivalence about the rivalry continuing.
• The pregame video highlighted the historical divide between Missouri as a slave state and Kansas as a free state, reviving tensions rooted in the Border War that killed hundreds in the mid-19th century.
• Separately, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian faced backlash after a postgame interview incident where he was rude to ESPN reporter Holly Rowe following a major win over Ohio State, illustrating the high-pressure environment and sensitivities in college football media interactions.
• The article underscores the intense, often petty nature of college football rivalries and media dynamics, suggesting that historical grievances and emotional tensions are now part of the entertainment fabric of the sport.