The University of Michigan vs.  Michigan State University football game is one of the biggest rivalries in the Big 10 and in all of college football. This rivalry undoubtedly causes a great deal of emotionally driven actions throughout the game, even before it begins or after it ends. Along with the high intensity, there are many superstitions and traditions before each game, especially a big rivalry game.

Michigan State has a pre-game tradition of walking sideline-to-sideline, arms linked, from one end of the field to the other. However, they were supposed to do this march at about 9:50 am, but ended up missing the time by 15 minutes. When MSU did not walk the field, the Michigan players started to warm up at their scheduled time. The Michigan State players walked across the field, “clothes-lining” Michigan players including Devin Bush Jr. and his teammates, knocking one of the player’s headphones off, and triggering a word exchange. A few moments later, Bush got revenge by stomping, cleating, and ripping up the white paint on Michigan State’s logo in the midfield.

Many people feel that Bush should not have committed such an immature act of shredding up the midfield logo. Instead, Bush should have channeled all of his energy into the game and played exceptionally well as his revenge. These type of incidents make Bush and his teammates look bad and can upset the coaches. Had it not been so early in the day before the game and before the rest of the Michigan and the Michigan State players were warming up, there would most likely have been a huge altercation between both MSU and U of M players, ultimately leading to player ejections and suspensions.

It was a bit unreasonable for Bush to get so upset about Michigan State’s players walking arms in arm across the field. Ultimately, it was the home field for MSU, and they have rights to the field until the game starts. Michigan fans may believe Bush had the right to destroy part of the logo considering the actions of the the MSU team, but would Michigan State’s players act with this level of anger if the roles were reversed? Bush made a bad move and should be reprimanded by his coach.