Iconic Harvard-Yale Game Delayed After Climate Protesters Storm Field
You know what I think of when I think of the iconic Harvard-Yale game?
No, I don’t think of privileged kids rooting for the school they attended.
No, I don’t think of Brian Dowling, the famous Yale quarterback that inspired the character B.D. in “Doonesbury.”
No, I don’t even think of that episode of “Gilmore Girls” about the time that Lorelai went along to the Harvard-Yale game. (Good one, though.)
Instead, what I think of is climate change. Specifically, student activists storming the field to interrupt the game because, um, climate change?
How could you not, after all? There’s nothing more important than climate change. I mean, the planet is dying, right?
Well, thank Gaia that someone thinks the same way. Instead of letting a stupid football game go on without being reminded of climate change (or the “climate emergency,” depending on how you feel about the whole thing) brave climate protesters decided to remind us of just how the Harvard-Yale game had to do with the climate emergency (and Puerto Rican debt, because why not?) by storming the field in New Haven, Connecticut, and delaying the game.
Harvard-Yale game delayed by student protest over climate injustice.
(via @lim_woojin)pic.twitter.com/2yEjivdRJw
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 23, 2019
The Harvard-Yale game was delayed by students protesting climate change. pic.twitter.com/IDlLNF2W3G
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 23, 2019
The protest had to do with “climate injustice” (que?) and dealt with interrupting the game because — uh, I’m not sure, and The Harvard Crimson didn’t do a better job of explaining it to me.
“The 136th edition of The Game came to a halt Saturday when hundreds of people stormed the field during halftime, calling on Harvard and Yale to divest their endowments from fossil fuels and Puerto Rican debt,” the article, published Saturday, read.
“Dozens of protesters started running on the field roughly three minutes before halftime ended and unfurled banners calling for divestment. Several hundred spectators joined the protesters as they staged a sit-in and chanted ‘Divest.’ The demonstration continued for about half an hour on the field until police officers arrested some protesters — who insisted they would not leave the field — and charged them with disorderly conduct. Protesters continued their chants off the field near an entrance gate to the stadium.”
Officials asked — ha! — asked protesters to return to the stands out of respect for the players. While I don’t exactly think that college activists are the best people to explain their own goals, the Yalies in question didn’t exactly rise to “Gilmore Girls“-level explication of their goals. Maybe they just didn’t talk fast enough.
“I was most motivated by, essentially, anger that Yale — which is a place that I call home — is still invested in Puerto Rican debt and fossil fuels, which is antithetical to what I believe in,” Yale sophomore Sam A. Gallen told the Crimson.
“And that if they were to ever divest, we’d have to do something to motivate that, such as walking onto the field.”
Or you could end up in a Western Journal story where I make fun of you and get to unfavorably compare your verbal skills to Rory and Lorelai Gilmore. One of the two.
The Harvard-Yale game is arguably one of the biggest sporting events in the United States that includes a whole gaggle of players that have no chance of ever starting in the NFL.
I mean, even the Grambling-Southern game is probably going to have a few NFL players in it. This one? Not so much.
This was the one opportunity for these players to shine. Instead, what we got was people who wanted to turn the game into a “conversation” — that included gems like this protesters’ chant: “Disclose, divest, or this will be our death.”
Meanwhile, here’s a more substantive conversation about the Harvard-Yale game:
Have I overused my quota of “Gilmore Girls” references for a single article by a mile? Yes!
Are any of these references to “Gilmore Girls” as relevant to climate change or divesting from Puerto Rican debt (an issue so unimportant I’m not even going to give it its own paragraph) as protesting during the Harvard-Yale game was? Yes!
Long story short: Oy with the climate change nonsense already.
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