NFL Shoves don’t shake B-CU Band Members

Karsceal Turner- I Got NEXT

Look, the story from Sunday’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers season opener wasn’t the shoving of B-CU freshman Trombone player Marquel Ballard by Panther’s kicker Graham Gano.

Yes I know you’re like “K.T. what the hell are you talking about?”

I’m going to bloody tell you what I’m talking about. Indeed, I was just as flabbergasted as every other Bethune-Cookman University student, fan, employee, alum, and even my good friend Dr. Edison O. Jackson, (B-CU’s president) when I saw the clip on ESPN while watching NFL week-1 scores. Truly, some not so pleasant expletives flew from my mouth that Dr. Jackson (a minister), wouldn’t approve of.

I saw it just as many of you did. An NFL kicker shoved a person wearing a Bethune band uniform, NOT COOL MAN. Basically, Gano apologized for trying to get his kicking in like he does every Sunday for a paycheck, while Ballard was putting in work on the field to earn his scholarship. Two schools of thought here folks, it was two people doing their own thing while occupying the same space. One was paid in NFL salary, the other was paid in Scholarship dollars and meal money. Both very valid arguments but we’re going to move on from this “glitch”

Apology accepted

“I apologized, and he accepted,” Gano said. “All is forgiven” Ballard told Gano,”We were both just doing our jobs, and our paths crossed. “We’re cool.”

Ballard is from Atlanta and is on a partial band scholarship at B-CU. Gano offered him two tickets and field passes for the Panthers’ season-closing game at Atlanta on Dec. 28.

All that is fine and well pending an impending B-CU band schedule which sometimes runs close to the holidays. Ballard may end up giving those passes as a Christmas gift. If you know Mr. Wells like I’ve come to know him. This leads me to what I’m talking about in the first place.

The story here is how Donovan Wells, Director of Bands at B-CU for the past 18 years and his support staff has the Marching Pride doing that “One band, One sound” thing you all loved in the feature film “Drumline.”

Marquel Ballard stumbled but he stayed in step, and played on. Hey, no bloody problem, with a Director like Wells, precision is what it’s all about. Trust me, if you’ve ever dropped by the band field on-campus you may catch him in rare form. Rare form entails him placing a proverbial foot in someone’s posterior. The musicianship doesn’t end there, the B-CU band staff includes professionals with over four decades of experience from: James Poitier (Associate Director and Arranger, Pedro Orey (Assistant Director and Percussion Instructor), and Ernest Hamilton (Auxiliary Instructor).

Lengthy performance schedule

The Marching Pride has an extensive band schedule that includes over a dozen appearance, five of which are B-CU home games, two are NFL game appearances one of which was already taken place with the next at a Jacksonville Jaguars game on Oct. 19.

The band performed in its 12th Honda Battle of the Bands showcase of HBCU bands in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta as the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) representative. In December 2005, a small group of The Pride’s percussion section filmed a commercial unveiling the new Cadillac DTS. The commercial made its debut in February 2006 and continued air play throughout the rest of the year. The Honda Battle of the Bands event’s producers nominated The Pride to be featured in the Super Bowl special episode of the Emmy-winning The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Last but not least, you already saw them put it down with an appearance in the 2002 film Drumline.

Keeping the NFL relationship solid

Wells was emphatic about the relationship between the NFL and the B-CU band. “We don’t want the relationship damaged because of this situation,” he said. I spoke with Dr. Jackson as soon as the incident happened.”

“I didn’t even see the incident. But I heard about before we returned to the bus.” Wells said what began as an already uncomfortable situation was escalated out of proportion because of Social Media. “By the time we loaded the bus, it was all over Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “Minutes later it was on Fox and ESPN.” He also was concerned with the influx of angry B-CU fans who demanded justice on behalf of Ballard. “There was an influx of calls to the NFL about the incident. Some people even tried to throw a racial spin on it. The most taxing part of it was the spin people tried to put on it.

Wells said he had a chance to speak with Gano and the kicker was genuinely upset about what happened. He’s actually been a B-CU band fan since his playing days at Florida State. He loves the band.”

As I mentioned earlier, it’s little wonder B-CU’s band members don’t skip a beat, they’ve been at it since August 1st. While everyone was hosting barbecues and vacationing, the “Pride” were in that Florida sun putting work in. It definitely shows on the field. In fact, Ballard is a freshman who earned a spot on the field…a rare sight in most Black college bands. Speaking of Black College bands. I know plenty of rival bands thought the video loop of the “push” was hilarious. It won’t be funny if you’re sitting across from the “Pride” at a football game…haters. This ends my spin on the kicking event. I’ll See you Saturday on the field when B-CU faces Grambling State University cause I Got NEXT!