The Clemson Tigers will be playing against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the National Championship game on Monday night after thumping Ohio State over the weekend 31-0.
The game itself didn't produce any particularly memorable moments, except for one very bizarre play in which a Clemson defensive lineman, Christian Wilkins, grabbed at an Ohio State player's junk after he was tackled.
See Exhibit A:
The outrage from this play immediately blew up on twitter with some accusing Christian Wilkins of sexual assault.
After the game, Wilkins apologized for the inappropriate play and said he was "just being silly," but that explanation wasn't enough for reporters who spoke with some of his teammates today.
One of Wilkins' teammates, linebacker Ben Boulware was asked about Wilkins' foul play and said that this is something the Tigers have been doing all year. Boulware brushed off the backlash and says everyone who is freaking out about the play are "just losers who didn’t have any friends when they played the game."
Check out Boulware's lengthy response below, followed by the reaction of some of Ohio State's defensive players.
"That’s something we’ve done all year to mess with 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, break up the seriousness of the game.
I’ve never done it as aggressively as Christian did it, I’ll just poke them. It’s gained some unwanted attention. I don’t think Coach Swinney—we would just make fun of Christian. He’s not going to suspend Christian for grabbing a dude’s butt. Like, it’s not really that big of a deal. It’s just kind of annoying.
You kinda gotta to be a little fox about it 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 butt now. It’s just we play football together for hours and hours every day, in the locker room, bored. We don’t sit in the locker room poking each other’s butt, we’re just together all day and 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 didn’t do it as aggressively as he did. He needs to be more discreet about it.
I know there’s going to be one person: “Well, I played football and I never did that.’ You either sucked at football, you had no friends in the locker room, or you were the person that went in the bathroom stall to go change because you were scared to shower with the team.
Yes, Christian went — he went about four fingers deep. He went a little too far. But when I’m just messing with somebody, poking them in the belly button or grabbing someone’s butt, it’s just to break up the seriousness of the game. The people who are freaking out about that have never played the game, or were just losers who didn’t have any friends when they played the game. It’s annoying."
