Liberty Bowl, University of Memphis declare they are afraid of cowbells

It is well documented that this blog is not always one to follow the rules. We have made some mistakes and have paid for our sins along the way. We have since matured and learned that rules are essential to our internet society. As a respectful, mature, rule-abiding adult headed to Memphis this weekend, I went to www.thelibertybowlstadium.com to check on rules for attending the game. This was, of course, not at all in relation to a certain noisemaker that I planned on bringing to the game but rather just for good ole information.

I start reading through the normal, everyday game day rules: Clear bag must be blah blah blah, no chairs that are blah blah blah. All wonderful, helpful information for an eager fan ready for game day. Then, I was stopped dead in my tracks:

I was, of course, disappointed that I couldn’t bring my air horn. So, I thought, why don’t I bring my cowbell! It would not be in violation of these rules. Why you ask? Because, according to the Liberty Bowl Stadium website, you can bring noisemakers that aren’t a.) artificial (cowbells are real noisemakers) and b.) approved by the playing teams or their respective conferences. The SEC (Mississippi State’s conference) does allow cowbells at Davis Wade Stadium, as does Mississippi State (team playing this weekend).

We took to Twitter to celebrate the idea that cowbells could be rung in another stadium, you know, to help the pageantry of college football.

Our friends over at Anchor of Gold (a Vandy blog, who are noted friends of the Memphis Tigers) agreed with us. They went as far to say it “literally looks like they wrote it so that Mississippi State fans could have cowbells, lol”.

We then fired off many more tweets in excitement, calling all 25,000+ Bulldog fans that will invade the Liberty Bowl to also bring their cowbells. The thought of this many fans having fun in their stadium made the Liberty Bowl angry, well, we can only assume as we have never dealt with stadium emotions before.

When a fan asked about cowbells, they responded:

As a now avid rule follower, it naturally upset us. Here we are trying to follow the rules and now the rule maker is breaking them? How can we keep up?

In true FWtCT fashion, we defended our right to follow the rules , even arguing with an Memphis ESPN account. Then, a more shocking turn of events: the Memphis Tiger’s Athletic Twitter account did this:

The ultimate rule break: copyright infringement. Yeah, we are coming for you @TigersAthletics. Or cease and desist, or whatever legal talk makes you delete it and publicly apologize. Or just let us have cowbells, either works.

Oh, and change your name you poser. “Liberty” Bowl ? Pshhh, please.