Watch: Every Single Texas & Oklahoma Player Receives Penalty Before the Game Even Starts
It's not every day every single player on two football teams gets flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. Actually, it's never.
But that's exactly what happened Saturday (Oct. 12th, 2019) at the Red River Showdown between the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners.
The mass penalty was the result of a pre-game scuffle on the field. Dozens of players were involved with the incident, based on video tweeted out by Austin American-Statesman sports reporter Brian Davis:
The penalty, according to The Athletic sports reporter Jason Kersey, meant that if any player on either team received another unsportsmanlike penalty during the actual game, they'd be ejected. You only get two in any given game.
Mike Defee, the official that issued the game wide unsportsmanlike penalties, double down at the coin toss.
It's one thing to try and control a rivalry game, a heated one at that, but it's another thing to completely hamstring any ability to enforce a penalty later in the game without kicking someone out of the game. Especially when there weren't any real punches thrown.