Chinese Bandits: Today’s reason college football is good

Eyeblack Odyssey argues that college football is good. In honor of that thought, I’ll be posting a series of daily blog entries that celebrate the good in the sport. I have no idea how far I’ll take this, but for now, let us all bask in the awesome.

Let us all bask in … Chinese Bandits

When LSU’s defense dominates you — and this happens a a lot — the Tigers faithful does not merely accept this and move on. No, they feel they must honor their defense and humiliate the opposing fans/offense at the same time by throwing rocks at their heads.

Ha! Just kidding! It’s glass bottles.

No, what they actually do is one of the coolest traditions in college football, an homage to the Chinese Bandits.

The story of the Chinese Bandits is here (and it’s a good one), but the shorthand is this: They were a dominant LSU defense from years past. To this day, the LSU marching band plays a fun little tune to honor said defense (and the defense of today) whenever LSU makes a big defensive stop, either a turnover forced or a stop on third (or fourth) down. To complete the effect, the LSU crowd bows down to the excellence on display, making it one of the more interactive, distinctive, and just plain sweet cheers in all of sports.

It’s seriously one of my favorite things about LSU football.