Temper Temper: Sports Tantrums of Winter

There are five inches of snow on the ground here in Central Virginia, as I write this.  But, my calendar says that winter is over.  So, it's time to take a look back at the hottest tempers during the coldest months of 2014.

1. Not Very Ladylike.  We didn't have to wait long to get our first great spectacle of sports temper in 2014.  This clip comes from the Sugar Bowl on January 2 between Alabama and Oklahoma.  The star of this video is reportedly an Alabama fan who is the mother of three children ... three children who were with her at the game!  This video has all sorts of gems.  Pre-fight trash talk.  A stealthy escape from wiser friends.  A Superman dive.  And a barrage of wild kicks.  My only question is:  Just how many Bourbon Street hurricanes contributed to this craziness?

2. Midwestern Meltdown.  Average folks from the Midwest pride themselves on mild manners and stoic demeanors, but the Big Ten has a long and storied history of basketball coaches with hot tempers.  During a road game at Wisconsin on January 6, 2014, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery channeled his inner Bobby Knight and went berserk on the referees.  Not only did McCaffery's Hawkeyes go on to lose the game, but McCaffery earned himself an ejection and a one-game suspension for his antics.

3. Canadian Fight Night.  What you are about to see is a all-out five-on-five line brawl to start the January 18, 2014 game between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks.  If this fight looks like it was planned, that's because it was.  Bad blood between these Canadian rivals prompted both teams to start the game with their fourth lines on the ice.  The only reason to do that is to have a throw down without risking ejection of the star players.

4. Marcus Smart Pushes Fan.  Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart broke the modern trend and returned for a sophomore season in college rather than turn pro.  Theoretically, Smart would be able to market himself as the most mature player amongst the top picks in the 2014 NBA draft.  However, Smart's outburst on February 8, 2014 at Texas Tech certainly did not help his image.  Exactly what was said to Smart is up for debate.  No one disputes that middle-aged Tech fan did something that should be beneath a man of his years.  However, fighting the fans is simply not allowed.  The Big XII conference handed Smart a 3-game suspension for this shove.  Really, the best part of the video is when the commentator calls the fan "elderly."

5. March Madness.  "Mad" has two meanings: angry and crazy.  This video includes both uses of the word.  During the America East Conference basketball tournament championship game, the Albany Great Dane and the Stony Brook Seawolf get a little carried away.

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