Fans watching Saturday night’s college football game between the Air Force Academy and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, saw more than an Air Force blowout of the Rebels at UNLV’s Allegiant Stadium.
They saw a referee go into the stands to personally confront the home team’s marching band — apparently for playing while the Air Force Falcons were on offense.
According to Fox News, the incident took during a TV timeout that halted play with less than two minutes left in the third quarter. During the break, referee Steve Baron climbed into the stands and had a word with the musicians.
Others tweeted videos of the ref striding up into the stands.
The ref just went into the crowd and told the UNLV band to stop playing whilst Air Force has the ball (I think at least) ??? pic.twitter.com/9xA9FAbXgV
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) October 16, 2022
The marching band was apparently breaking the Mountain West Conference rules about when to play during games and kept playing during the Falcons’ offensive drives, Sporting News reported.
“Bands are prohibited from playing during game action or at any time that is disruptive to the competitors. Pregame, postgame, timeouts, halftime, between quarters, or other breaks in the action are permissible times for band activities,” the Mountain West Conference rules state, according to Fox.
“In the sport of football, bands must discontinue playing when the team with the ball breaks the huddle until the completion of the play. If a team plays a no‐huddle offense, the band shall not play at any time during the offensive possession,” the rules state.
Should the band be allowed to play whenever it wants?
What surprised many, though, was that Baron decided to actually go into the stands himself.
“What makes this scene stand out from the norm is that, instead of getting on the PA system to instruct the band to quiet down, Baron thought it was necessary to use the TV timeout to climb all the way into the stands to address the problem face-to-face,” Sporting News noted.
Some on Twitter made fun of the commotion.
“Have never seen this ever before. The ref was walking so sternly like he was about to give the UNLV band detention,” one user posted.
Have never seen this ever before. The ref was walking so sternly like he was about to give the UNLV band detention ? https://t.co/GT23ABVo6h
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) October 16, 2022
“Look, it’s 42-7 Air Force. Maybe the ref should tell UNLV to START playing,” another user posted.
Look, it’s 42-7 Air Force. Maybe the ref should tell UNLV to START playing. https://t.co/oAW01c8PxZ
— Kevin Kessler (@SoDakStBandMan) October 16, 2022
“Your 2nd clarinets are terribly out of tune. Five yard penalty and loss of down” https://t.co/mL5jKspPCs
— Kevin Kessler (@SoDakStBandMan) October 16, 2022
However, the music did not seem to be a hindrance to Air Force, as it was already leading the game 35-7 when Baron headed into the stands.
The final score was Falcons 42, Rebels 7.
With this win, the Falcons are now 5-2 for the season.
Meanwhile, the loss put UNLV at 4-3.
