SEC threatens fans with ejection for wearing shirts joking about Brandon Miller’s role in fatal shooting
Warning: The following story contains a graphical language.
The Brandon Miller situation in Alabama exposed some of the ugliest aspects of college sports culture, and they came out loud and clear in the SEC men’s basketball tournament.
With Miller still playing despite delivering a fatal gun earlier this year, the Crimson Tide advanced to the Finals by beating Missouri 72-61 Saturday. There was a man in an Alabama-themed shirt with “GOATS” on the front and “Killing our way through the SEC at 23” on the back.
When John Talty of AL.com asked about the jersey, the man responded with obscene language, claimed to be an Alabama fan, and said he would be back Sunday for the Tide Championship game against Texas A&M.
SEC representative later told AL.com that fans will not be allowed to the final on Sunday if they wear such a jersey and will be asked to leave if they wear it at any time:
Securities and Exchange Commission spokesman Herb Vincent told AL.com that fans will not be allowed into the Bridgestone Arena wearing T-shirts on Sunday, and that if fans wear them at any time inside the arena, they will be asked to leave. SEC fan ticket policy states that tickets may be revoked if “the user violates the rules, endangers others, or uses vulgar, threatening, or degrading language.”
The shirt is an obvious reference to Miller’s legal saga, in which a star freshman delivered a gun to former teammate Darius Miles, which was later used to kill 23-year-old mother Jamea Harris on January 15. Miles and Michael Davis, the man who allegedly fired the gun, both face capital murder charges. Miller was not charged with the crime, as prosecutors indicated there was no evidence that he knew the gun would be used to commit the crime when he delivered it to Miles late at night at a nightclub.
The case also reared its head before the game, when a pair of hooligans in Vanderbilt shirts yelled at him during the warm-up: “Brandon the Keeler”, “You’re a killer and you know it” and “God will judge you.”
Miller, who called the situation “heartbreaking” earlier this week, saw no repercussions from Alabama and continued to play in a move that was condemned by Harris’ parents. However, he received some rebuff for a pregame intro in which a teammate pretended to grope him and was constantly booed and interrupted on the road.
Source: sports.yahoo.com
