Clemson Players Talk About The Art Of Poking And Grabbing Opponents’ Butts And Balls

Clemson football is all about two things these days: grabbing butts and getting revenge.

Some eagle-eyed viewers of the National Semifinal on Saturday between Clemson and Ohio State may have noticed Tigers defensive lineman Christian Wilkins getting a bit handsy after a tackle in the first quarter. Here’s another look at it, in case you missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2NGPUXTvU

Listen, man, I’m not an expert on defensive schemes or tactics but it was a weird look. Clemson linebacker Ben Boulware was asked about the grab on Wednesday and he wants you all to know this is a completely ordinary thing for the Clemson defense to do because they’re a bunch of guys just trying to have fun out there.

That’s something we’ve done all year to mess with a player. No one’s probably done it as aggressive as Christian did. We try to be a little more discreet about it and just poke somebody, but he definitely grabbed a handful. I did it against USC. The dude tweeted it. I just poked him in the butt. Like, it’s just something we do to mess with players, just to kind of break up the seriousness of the game.

This admission of grab-assery, of course, then led to a series of followup questions from giggly reporters. Boulware was happy to respond.

“I’ll poke players in the belly button. I have a whole video compilation of me messing with offensive lineman or messing with players,” Boulware said without providing links to the proper YouTube video. “I’ve never done it as aggressive as Christian did it. I’ll just poke them. But it’s something to do to mess around out there.”

Boulware harped on the fact that, if you’re a “little fox” and a bit more discrete about it, you don’t have to answer questions about grabbing butts before the biggest game of your college football career.

You kinda gotta to be a little fox out there and poke ’em real quick. And I know this is probably going to blow up, and everyone’s going to think I’m a sexual predator because I poke guys in the butts now. It’s just we play football together for hours and hours every day, in the locker room, bored. … And we don’t sit in the locker room poking each other’s butt, we’re just together all day and you get comfortable around everybody. It is what it is. Our defense, we’re good, we also like to have fun out there. I just wish Christian wouldn’t have did it as aggressively as he did. He needs to be more discreet about it.

Football players just like to poke and grab the butts of their enemies, okay? You just gotta be more careful about it and if you don’t like it, Boulware clarified, you’re a loser.

It’s just what football friends do, friends. Anyway, Clemson plays undefeated Alabama in the national title game on Monday. They lost to them in the title game last season. I know who Tina Belcher will be rooting for.

(via Deadspin)