That's pretty damn cool. No witty comments here, just damn cool.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 11:24 am | #

they need to do that always. what a cool thing to have as a tradition.
Scal | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 11:35 am | #

Alright.. I'm going to take the counter point to the "liking the haka". I'm not a fan.

1. I think it's silly seeing a bunch of mormons doing a tribal dance that is of a different culture. I'm not saying it belittles the Māori or trivalizes their traditions - I'm just saying it looks a little silly. Their mormons! The All Blacks do it - I'm okay with. They're from New Zealand, they have a good percentage of players with that heritage on the team - Cool. Mormons that are ~7000 miles away from New Zealand - Not Cool.

2. I think it's a little wierd doing the dance on the road. It's a dance that is to "welcome visitors" to their land and to show that their culture is important and something to be revered... why do it on the road? Flies directly in the face of the meaning of the damm thing... Hey if that's the case, should I start doing the Kamate for random things... making a pot coffee a work, before entering a bathroom stall, etc.

3. Maybe the BYU DBs should be working on something other than a perfecting a dance... I dunno... defending the pass
Ken | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 12:49 pm | #

Ken:

Note the first comment on the last link in the post.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 12:54 pm | #

I guess all of our non-Irish descent fans should back off of doing a jig?

I respectfully disagree with you Ken - it's a cool tradition.
Domer | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 1:08 pm | #

Nice, I'm not the only one that sees this that way. TY.
Ken | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 1:10 pm | #

Allow me to further explain my position.

First off, IMO It would be more appropiate for ND players to do the jig on the 50 YL (even though it would look ridiculous) than it is for BYU to do the Haka.

2 reasons -
1. The team is called "the Irish"
2. More than just one (1) player has an Irish heritage.

I think it's fine that non-Irish do the jig, but it's not like they're not doing centerstage on the 50 YL before the game. It's random - that's why it seems silly to me. At least have the school renamed to The Māori or something. It's a touching story abouth the kids grandfather, or whatever, and it helps me see why they would do it... still though, dollars to donuts, seeing ~100 mormons do it, it looks silly.
Ken | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 1:21 pm | #

If I was still a student at ND, I would volunteer to lead the team in the traditional "Irish Drunken Brawl". Now that we would intimidate the heck out of the opposition!
Piertravlr | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 1:23 pm | #

Nevermind, I'm the idiot...

http://farms.byu.edu/display.php...ble=jbms& id=179
Ken | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 1:29 pm | #

Are Mormons even ALLOWED to dance? This could be a massive scandal!
Brad | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 2:04 pm | #

it is totally sweet
James | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 3:24 pm | #

If you're at all interested... check out the video of the All Blacks' Ka Mate. I'd love to see this in person... the place goes bullshit every time they do it


http://www.newzealand.com/ travel...ex_content.html
Jon | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 8:29 pm | #

As a rugby player, I've seen plenty of All Black matches, esp in the recent World Cup. It is QUITE intimidating and cool to see 25 football sized guys w/ eyes and veins bulging, spit flying out of their mouths and getting right up into the face of the Wallablies or Springboks (sorry, the Aussies and So. Africans).

OH, and Ken, given BYU's tradition of evangelizing, they've been in the So. Pacific for quite a while and have more than 1 Islander on their team and have a proud legacy of recruiting Islanders.
Domer95 | Email | Homepage | 10.28.05 - 10:23 pm | #

The BYU guys look like they're imitating Michael Jackson in "Thriller"--the All-Blacks look gosh darn cool. I'm with Ken--BYU doing this is silly.
Nate | Email | Homepage | 10.29.05 - 9:29 am | #

FYI - More than 20 of the players on the Cougar's roster are pacific islanders. Judging from what I've seen of the All Blacks that's probably more than play on their rugby team.
David | Email | Homepage | 11.02.05 - 10:51 am | #