Loose dog runs over player during college basketball game
There’s a saying in show business: Never trust children or dogs, because they’re unpredictable and just as likely to ruin a take as do what you want them to.
Well, this seems to hold for using live animals as sports mascots as well.
On Wednesday, Moravian College of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, played host to Drew University of Madison, New Jersey, in a Division III women’s basketball matchup.
Moravian’s team is called the Greyhounds, so it has a couple of dogs of that breed to rally the crowd.
The trouble comes in when one of the dogs takes out a player in the run of play.
Drew’s Michaela Keegan hit a shot at the end of the first quarter to put the Rangers up 24-21, and while the players were distracted, one of the dogs got loose from the stands, ran onto the court and knocked down another Drew player, Erin Frederick.
“Oh my God,” said one of the announcers on Moravian’s Greyhound Sports Network.
“A bad thing has happened right now,” said the other, showing a flair for melodrama.
“We have a downed player due to the dog going a bit awry,” he added.
Fortunately, Frederick, a 6-foot-1 freshman, was unharmed.
Anyone who’s ever been throwing a football in the backyard and had themselves, the ball and the family dog all arrive at the same spot at the same time from three different angles knows that if a dog hits just right, it can take out a knee like a canine Bernard Pollard hitting Tom Brady.
After the game, a Moravian representative issued a statement on the incident:
“We have two greyhound mascots, and at the end of the 1st Quarter one of them walked away from their handler in the bleachers. When he saw some open space (the court) he took off and knocked one of the Drew players over when he ran by.
“Thankfully she wasn’t hurt and after a minute or so she walked over to the Drew bench, and then returned to the game.”
To which the only proper reply is “bad dog, no biscuit.”
Also, whoever is handling the dogs at Moravian probably needs a sit-down for a few safety and proper animal handling lessons.
Oh, and Drew won the game, 81-79. No word on whether Moravian’s going to trade the greyhounds for a golden retriever to try and improve its fortunes.
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