Rutgers Canceled Their Brand New, School Sponsored Tailgate Because Their AD Had A Couple Sips Of Beer At It

Regrettably, due to safety concerns, The Alley is no longer available
for student tailgating.

— Rutgers Athletics (@RUAthletics) September 20, 2016

Uproxx- Hours after a website released a video that shows him drinking a beer at a student tailgate, Rutgers Athletics Director Pat Hobbs apologized for his actions and told NJ Advance Media he was trying to restore order to what was turning out to be an unruly atmosphere.

"My first concern is always for the safety and well-being of our students,'' Hobbs said. "Anyone who was at the (student tailgate) Saturday knows that I was acting to ensure that.''

On Aug. 31, Rutgers announced that it would sponsor a student tailgate at football home games this season. Dubbed "the Alley,'' the tailgate was located in a gravel lot across from the Werblin Recreation Center on the Busch Campus, approximately 400 yards from High Point Solutions Stadium.

On Tuesday, the university athletics department announced that it would be shutting down the student tailgate at home games for the remainder of the season, issuing a statement that read: "Regrettably, due to safety concerns, The Alley is no longer available for student tailgating.''
  


Wait, so Rutgers shut down their school sponsored tailgate student tailgate because a grown man - that was trying to make himself relatable to a bunch of kids - took a couple sips of beer? Is that what happened here, or was Rutgers scared that it looked like their brand new Athletic Director was endorsing the use of alcohol and felt they needed to take action? Either way, what I just watched was about the most harmless thing I have ever seen. Assuming, of course, that it's common knowledge that college kids are going to get blind drunk prior to football games. I mean, am I in the minority here? I get that nothing good comes out of an authority figure standing on a truck and begrudgingly having a drink with thousands of students that were undoubtedly filming him, but it's not like he was funneling beers with teenagers like 'Frank The Tank'. He wasn't slurring his words or going streaking. He wasn't dumping drinks down co-eds throats while chanting "SHOTS! SHOTS SHOTS!" like he was in a Lil' Jon video. He simply acquiesced to a group of kids to get them to calm down a little bit. It probably didn't work because - well - it was a goddamn tailgate, but I'm going to stop short of saying he incited whatever shitshow ensued. 

Plus, I know it's a small sample size but the video in question didn't exactly scream "safety concerns" to me. Actually seemed pretty tame considering the circumstances. At the very least I would venture to guess that any alternative in which they weren't being looked over by school officials would be infinitely more dangerous. I'm not saying that it was a good idea for Rutgers to involve itself with a game day activity that is nothing more than binge drinking for sport, but if they were going to do so then they should have been prepared for there to be beer present. Seems like a panic move to put a stop to it because your AD publicly acknowledged the existence of alcohol when attendance at the event you put together is predicated - almost solely - on the existence of alcohol. 

P.S. Pat Hobbs is a boss, and he probably deserves an extension.