Students residing in houses on Breese Terrace united together and decided not to host any pregame parties in a protest against the dangers of playing football.
The street, normally a sea of red, was a complete ghost town Saturday and the usually raucous houses were as quiet as the Memorial Library cages.
“Yeah, me and my bros were just pretty horrified after watching the game last weekend. Some of those guys were just getting destroyed out there,” said senior Tim Brady, who lives just across from the Camp Randall student gate. “So me and Kim (Mady) looked up some info and found all this stuff on, um, concussions, I believe is the word. Pretty horrifying stuff.”
Brady and his fellow housemates Bob Tronkowski, Mulian Adlemen and Jill Relichick then went door-to-door on Breese the following Monday, asking other residents if they were aware of the research done on long-term injuries after football careers.
The residents were shocked upon learning this information and jumped at the chance to make a statement.
“I was like, wow, man, this is serious. We have to do something,” said Jim Grady, a fellow Breese resident.
Brady and Grady, along with every single other resident on every house on Breese decided the best way to protest was to cancel all pregame festivities usually held at the houses.
“The fact that we celebrate something so savage and life-threatening hit us really hard after the minutes of research we did,” Brady said. “By not throwing ragers, we were trying to show that football isn’t something that should be seen as such a party.”
The absence of house parties on Breese left the Madison community confused. Packs of freshmen were seen wandering aimlessly up and down the street, looking for some sort of sign of a keg with Kul Lite or a three-story beer bong. Unsure of what to do when they realized no parties were happening, some students eventually lumbered unwillingly into Camp Randall before kick-off.
“I had never seen the Badgers run out onto the field before. It was actually pretty cool,” said sophomore Abhi Ryan, who usually gets into the stadium midway through the second quarter, barely able to walk from numerous games of flip cup.
Others were relieved at the lack of festivities, most notably Madison Police Chief Mike Koval. He said he had never seen anything like this in all his years of service in Madison. Normally a high-stress day filled with arrests of college students who have had far too much Burnett’s, Koval gladly took the opportunity for a relaxing day.
“Thank god these assholes actually did something productive for society for once,” Koval said while cracking open a beer and putting his feet up on his desk.
At press time, it was unclear whether the protest would continue for the next home game against Ohio State, which is also a night game.
“I mean, our protest is important, but, like, it’s Ohio State, man,” Brady said.
