LSU Players Threatened with Arrest During Postgame Locker Room Celebration That Included Cigars
Spirits were high in the LSU locker room after the Tigers defeated Clemson 42-25 Monday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans to win the college football national championship.
Quarterback Joe Burrow, the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner, starred as LSU won its first title since the 2007-08 season.
Burrow threw for 463 yards and five touchdowns and added 58 yards on the ground with a rushing score.
So it made sense that Burrow and some of his teammates wanted to enjoy some cigars in the aftermath of their big win. After all, smoking a cigar after winning a championship is something of a tradition in American sports.
Get The Nat pic.twitter.com/1udC79q6cc
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) January 14, 2020
Joe Burrow sucking on a cigar and blowing smoke into the air while exiting the #LSU locker room is a thing that has happened. pic.twitter.com/9B0hzqz31M
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 14, 2020
But it seems at least one police officer wasn’t in a celebratory mood, reportedly threatening to arrest anyone who didn’t stop smoking.
“A police officer threw water on the party when telling the national champions they could not smoke the cigars that burned for easily 15 minutes after beating Clemson,” AL.com reported.
“In fact, the officer announced to the players any smoking cigars in the locker room would be subject to arrest. Several players holding stogies laughed at the warning like it was a joke but the cop wasn’t smiling.”
Cop just walked into a smokey LSU locker room dead serious and said everyone smoking a cigar is subject to arrest.
— Michael Casagrande (@ByCasagrande) January 14, 2020
Now, there a couple of ways to look at this.
On the one hand, the officer was correct in that both the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans have laws in place that ban smoking in public places.
These laws were enacted to protect the public from having to breathe in secondhand smoke; indeed, according to reporters at the scene, there was plenty of secondhand smoke in the locker room.
There is cigar smoke emanating from the #LSU locker room.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 14, 2020
Oh boy the LSU locker room is one enormous puff of cigar smoke
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 14, 2020
That being said, it’s important to note that the punishments for violating these ordinances do not include arrest, as Sports Illustrated noted.
So even if the officer wanted to enforce the law, it seems that he should have threatened a citation or a ticket rather than arrest.
In the end, it seems everything worked out for the best.
“Another officer tried to tell them it was OK to celebrate with a smoke in the locker room but he insisted his commander told him it was a no-go,” AL.com reported. “Nobody was arrested.”
It’s understandable that the players would want to celebrate their win with some victory cigars, but it also makes sense that the officer wanted to make sure they were following the law.
Thankfully, nobody was arrested, and further escalation appears to have been avoided.
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