The "Man Trip" before every WVU Mountaineer football game is a great tradition! Currently, only the starting players that dress for the game are taken to the hotel the night before and take the bus the stadium the next day for the Man Walk. However, there are quite a few players such as red-shirts and walk-ons that make up the Scout Team practice squads, and injured players that are not allowed to participate in this tradition because they are not dressing for the game. These red-shirts and walk on players on the Scout Team practice every day with the starters, do drills, watch film, weight train, and are considered valuable team members in every other respect. They give their sweat and blood for the Mountaineers and work just as hard as the starters do.
I realize the NCAA has rules about players that do not dress cannot be in the locker room before a game and have to be on the end of the sideline in WVU workout clothes, but I am not aware of any rule that would prevent these 20 to 30 young men to meet the starters at the bus and walk with them into the stadium. I believe the fans would like to see them, and that these young men who give so much to the team would enjoy walking in with the starters instead of having to sit alone inside the stadium while their Mountaineer brothers take the Man Trip. Every man on the team has a role to play and the fact that they are indeed on the team and contributing should earn them the right to walk into the stadium with the rest of the team. Let’s expand the Man Trip to include all the players!
I realize the NCAA has rules about players that do not dress cannot be in the locker room before a game and have to be on the end of the sideline in WVU workout clothes, but I am not aware of any rule that would prevent these 20 to 30 young men to meet the starters at the bus and walk with them into the stadium. I believe the fans would like to see them, and that these young men who give so much to the team would enjoy walking in with the starters instead of having to sit alone inside the stadium while their Mountaineer brothers take the Man Trip. Every man on the team has a role to play and the fact that they are indeed on the team and contributing should earn them the right to walk into the stadium with the rest of the team. Let’s expand the Man Trip to include all the players!
