How The “F The Mormons” Event Could Cause Future Suspensions For Ducks, Beavers Coaches

By STEVEN VAUGHAN, 750 The Game

Coaches and athletic directors at Oregon and Oregon State could face suspensions due to any misbehavior by fans, under a proposed law under consideration in the state legislature.

Oregon state representative Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) is the sponsor of House Bill 2472. She joined John Canzano on 750 The Game on Tuesday to provide more context on the concept and purpose of the bill that has created strong reaction among Ducks and Beavers fans.

Bynum said the event last September at a Ducks football game against Brigham Young University – where a group of Oregon fans were seen and heard chanting ‘f— the Mormons’ – triggered the creation of the bill.

“We’ve been setting standards for the high school kids for, you know, five years now,” Bynum said.  “And the ‘F the Mormons’ event kind of took it to a new level.  And I thought we need to set some standards for college kids.”

In the bill, Bynum proposes that coaches and athletic directors could face suspensions if crowds misbehave.

Should coaches and AD’s be suspended for this?  Bynum says that athletic directors aren’t doing enough.

“I think that when you add the financial element on there, and I think you add all the things AD’s do, they’re not going to sign up to fix a problem.”  Bynum went on to say, “People are not going to fix things. Sometimes you have to muscle your way in to have the conversation.  And since this has caused such a stir I know it’s the right conversation to have.”

Canzano agreed with some of the points that Bynum made, but expressed is more concern about alcohol being the root of the problem.

“The vast majority of problems that I hear about at stadiums – and I’m at stadiums – the vast majority of complaints are related to alcohol,” Canzano countered. “I’m not saying you ban alcohol, but you have to severely limit alcohol sales to the first half.”

When asked about alcohol and if it’s the problem, Bynum said no.

“Alcohol is not to blame for people’s bad behavior.  I think it’s setting expectations and executing on those expectations.  And what I saw when I was developing the high school bill, we had to train coaches, we had to train refs, we had to set expectations for fan behavior about what we wanted it to look like when one team came to play at another team’s school.”

Listen to the full interview with Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) on the Bald Faced Truth with John Canzano below.  Canzano hosts the Bald Faced Truth weekdays 3-6 p.m. exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.