Tennessee radio host bans Pat Forde from station after fan fiasco vs. Ole Miss | College Football Enquirer

Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel and Sean Sullivan, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the disastrous ending to the Tennessee-Ole Miss game on Saturday, and how the fans ‘petulant’ behavior led to Pat’s banning.

Video Transcript

PAT FORDE: All right. The other big topic of the weekend. Sean Sullivan's Alma mater involved in a great game on a great night with 102455 in the stands--

[LAUGHS]

--the atmosphere going. Ole Miss in town. Lane Kiffin on the visiting sideline on fourth and 24.

Did he get 23-yards? Did he get 24? Did he get 23 and 1/2? Did he get 24 and an inch?

And then, all hell breaks loose. We have a declaration from the officials that it is not a first down for Tennessee. It is Mississippi's ball. There's less than a minute left, but Tennessee has three timeouts left, so the game is still in the balance.

PETE THAMEL: Oh,yeah.

PAT FORDE: But we have to take a 20 minute break for the pelting of the field with debris. Sully, you have lived and died with this program. What was Saturday night like for you? And what-- how would you sum up this whole Fandango that we witnessed here?

SEAN SULLIVAN: Oh man. I told you guys who was going to be vicious. I did say that.

[LAUGHING]

I don't even think--

PETE THAMEL: We were real time like texting each other pretty, pretty heavy during all this.

SEAN SULLIVAN: Oh, yeah. And I knew it was going to be a nasty environment that I did not think it was going to be that nasty. Um, yeah. I think the anger was justified, but the reaction absolutely did not need to happen. That never needs to happen.

And you know, I think both of you guys have had pretty loud opinions about the whole situation, and the fan base is pretty pissed. But you know that, they should be pissed at themselves. They keep handing you guys the big wide brush that you could paint.

PETE THAMEL: So I want to interject here, because Pat and I talked about this a little bit on text last night, like the-- I in 20 years of covering college football, have never seen anything like this happen. Now, could it have happened? Sure.

SEAN SULLIVAN: Mm-hmm.

PETE THAMEL: May it have happened somewhere? Yes. Could a game have been delayed for some debris being thrown on the field? Yes.

SEAN SULLIVAN: Yeah.

PETE THAMEL: A 20 minute full stop, clear the cheerleaders in the band, bring the team to the middle of the field, tell your players to put on their helmets stop, I have never seen. Pat, 40 have you, ever seen anything like that.

PAT FORDE: No. But I've been in covering college football for 35 years.

PETE THAMEL: OK. Only 35. All right. Yes. I, very much stand by that. I haven't seen that. Has happened in basketball? Yeah. Like there's been pissed off, you know, students [INAUDIBLE] basketball.

SEAN SULLIVAN: And this very same rivalry. And an Ole Miss Tennessee game, two players got hit in the face. Like it happens around the SEC.

PETE THAMEL: I just think the stakes and the spectacle and the scope are unlike anything I've ever seen. And I'll stand by that, because if that happened in a college football game, that 20 minute delay happened, because of just an outpouring of debris. I will never forget the cheerleaders are using their like ball placards to protect their heads, like that's crazy.

SEAN SULLIVAN: Yeah.

PETE THAMEL: Like completely, completely crazy. And why didn't they throw a penalty? Like, but--

[LAUGHS]

PAT FORDE: I am stunned, there was no penalty.

SEAN SULLIVAN: Well the referee--

PAT FORDE: I am really surprised.

- --rest were pissed for all night, so that doesn't shock me.

[LAUGHING]

PETE THAMEL: The, uh--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

SEAN SULLIVAN: I think, if they get the right call in the first quarter, I don't think there's a single dip splitter thrown on the field. Yes. To be honest.

PETE THAMEL: A random Vols fan named Ronda Evans Phillips, direct message to me on Instagram, and said, "You want to write about the downfall of college football? Tackle the fake injuries horrible officiating. I'll be waiting to see your byline on those stories." That's just--

[LAUGHING]

SEAN SULLIVAN: Well, thank you miss Ronda.

PAT FORDE: That is still nicer than the Knoxville radio guy that I got.

PETE THAMEL: Oh, if anyone wants to go down just a delightful rabbit hole, this Knoxville radio guy, informed Pat on Twitter that he was banned from their station. And Pat wrote, oh darn.

PAT FORDE: No, look. Tennessee has a ton of great fans, but Tennessee has an element that has embarrassed that school and that fan base very badly. And it's not gone away, and it is, it's not tiny. It's significant enough that you hear them and you see them.

You see them in action, and you see what they've done. And the basic tenor of it seems to be-- we care so much that we get our way or we riot. Which is not a great way to handle difficult times. You don't get the right to just throw [AUDIO OUT] it at the field when things don't go your way. I'm sorry.