Michigan beat Ohio State again this year, for the fourth year in a row. Even better, Bobby won $500 with a foolish bet on his alma mater. Sports betting is a scurrilous vice, no doubt, but let me tell you, money won is sweeter than money earned. Especially against your biggest rival, counting your winnings while they seethe. Michigan even planted their flag on the field, a symbolic gesture that enraged Ohio State players and fans alike.
One Ohio legislator wants to make flag planting a felony, if you can believe it. Cope and seethe, Buckeyes.
Ohio State Rep. Josh Williams, a Republican (you’d think he’d be more mature), introduced a bill proposing to make flag planting during Ohio State football games illegal. It reads, “No person shall plant a flagpole with a flag attached to it in the center of the football field at Ohio stadium of the Ohio state university on the day of a college football competition, whether before, during, or after the competition. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree.”
A felony, oh my. Why not just make it illegal for Michigan to win? That’s really the point, isn’t it? Flag planting is just symbolic, and Ohio can’t cope with defeat.
The nice thing about winning is, you celebrate and go on with your life. I haven’t thought about the game in weeks. The poor Buckeyes, though, they can’t let it go, still raging down in Columbus. They couldn’t handle the loss even when it happened, choosing to get into fist fights with the Michigan players over the flag planting.
Here’s the truth about flag planting in college football: It’s not new, it’s not unprecedented, and it exists in the broader context of contentious rivalries, celebrations, defeats, and victories. Baker Mayfield started the current trend in 2017, planting the Oklahoma Sooners flag at Ohio State, in response to the Buckeyes singing their fight song midfield in Norman the previous year.
Flag planting has since become an epidemic, the taunt of choice following a victory. There were four notable incidents this year alone in rivalry week, with Michigan, Arizona State, Florida, and NC State all planting their flags on rivals’ fields following wins.
Even this year, a middling Michigan team suffered two flag planting humiliations of their own. Texas and Oregon both planted their flags in the Big House. It didn’t lead to players getting pepper sprayed. Michigan took its losses and moved on.
Perhaps those losses stung less because they knew that the real beauty of Michigan football is that, even in a down year, there’s always one shot at redemption—The Game. Nothing matters more than beating Ohio State. Michigan watched other, better teams plant their flags in the Big House all year, and in celebrating their biggest upset victory of the year, over their most hated rivals, naturally it felt like their turn.
Is it unsportsmanlike? Flag planting is no more unsportsmanlike than storming the field. We can’t simply expect players, after putting all this weight and expectation on them, the passions of millions of fans, to simply walk off the field stoically after a win.
We wouldn’t want that either. We don’t expect that from the losers. Michael Penix Jr. wept after Washington lost to Michigan in the National Championship last year, hiding his head in a towel as he walked off the field. No one thought less of him—we put the weight of the world on these young men’s shoulders.
What Penix didn’t do, however, is run across the field and start punching opposing players. Say what you will about flag planting, but fighting is shameful.
So is making a law about flag planting, even if it’s purely symbolic and has no chance of passing. Why draw more attention to the ignominy of your defeat and the shameful way your players handled it?
Move on, let it go, and guess what, you’ll have your chance to plant your own flag in Ann Arbor next year—if, and only if, you can win one on the field for a change, where it really matters.
Bobby Mars is an artist, alter ego, and former art professor. Follow him on X @bobby_on_mars.
