In case you haven't heard, and only know what was shown Monday night on Fox Sports' broadcast of BSU's win at the Fiesta Bowl, the "cowbell girl' does smile! Her story has lit up the internet in a special way and many people are either embarrassed or excited.
Here's a piece from SBNation, Mashable, and of course there are numerous video sites showing the piece. What is amazing to the story, according to College News, is one person’s inexplicably sad/bored Blue Thunder cowbell player is the another person’s “blind-student-participating-in school-spirit-the-only-way-she-may-know-how-and-is-rewarded-by-the-entire-internet-laugh-at-her.”
Why does it seem that when BSU is playing a big game other divergent stories come out of the game? Last Fiesta Bowl we had Ian's proposal to Chrissy on national tv. More from College News,
in spite of the great game played by all, an internet meme completely unrelated to sports because of the halftime show. The Boise State marching band performed, and during said performance, the camera lingered on a cowbell player who appeared to be inexplicably bored and/or sad. Because this is the Fiesta Bowl, right? Everyone should be having a good time! That’s what Fiestas are for!
I agree with College News' take on the story
The internet responded with a myriad of parody photos as well as Facebook fan pages and speculation as to what life was like for Boise State cowbell girl when she was happy. Indeed, the Boise State cowbell girl is riding high, scoring a number 8 on Google Trends as of this writing. The only problem with the fun and speculation at her expense? “To everybody talking bout “Sad cowbell girl” please be nice. She’s a blind student at Boise State and the nicest girl.”
Internet sensitivity win! Or as sports writer Kyle Allester Koster put it: “Um, it’s been brought to my attention that Cowbell Girl is, in fact, a blind student. We are all going to hell.” This case shows how the internet can be used for good and for evil. Evil to make fun of a blind girl through the internet, good because we wouldn’t know she was blind in the first place without it. Oh, the internet. You contain multitudes.
Though the 2010 Fiesta Bowl has been yet another incredible tale of the underdogs taking home the trophy, the story of the so-called "cowbell girl" has seen far more popularity thanks to the internet. Not to mention the help of a likely underpaid Fox Sports camera man. But let me ask you this: do you feel that the story should have received this much attention? More importantly, why do you think it did?
I would venture to say that people's capacity for prejudice exceeds all bounds of common sense. It's considerably easier to look at that young woman and say "Haha what's her problem?" than it is to stop and think what she might be going through. I hate to pull an Aesop on you all, but next time you begin to think ill of someone, stop and try to imagine what they might be going through. They could have just gotten in a car wreck, or perhaps someone yelled at them at the supermarket earlier that day. Or maybe they could be blind...
On a lighter note, if you want more cowbell (and I know I do) check out this SNL skit
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