The Brawl in Birmingham

While Memphis fans are outraged and UAB fans are deafeningly quiet on the subject of the “melee” that followed Saturday night’s game, many others found the whole thing humorous. Great photos from The Commercial Appeal’s Mark Weber have shown up all over the internet, providing great blogger fodder.

Here’s the photo that shows a Memphis player with a hand on the face of a UAB fan. The player has been identified by many as Pierre Niles.

Rumors and Rants deemed a photo “one of the greatest action shots of a postgame fracas I've ever seen” and turned it into a “seek and find” game. Rumors and Rants found 60 “angry white guys” in the photo but only two attractive females. This is the funniest blog entry I’ve see in a while.

Charles Rich of AOL Sports Fan Nation says: “The photo also shows that UAB students think that Memphis is spelled ‘Mempis,’ and that flipping off the Tigers players is the best response to losing. Stay classy, Birmingham.” Be sure to read the comments below this blog entry.

At Super, Scintillating and Sarcastic, Memphis was a finalist for the This Week In Chaos Award “Most Narrow Avoidance of Mediocrity That Should Not Be Forgotten But Will Be”- The Tigers did not win the award but made the short list for escaping "Baghdad/UAB….” Browse around this site for a very humorous take on college basketball.

Kentucky Sports Radio advises UAB students “if you are going to make a sign taunting the other team, at least use spell check.”

The Sporting News made it the Photo of the Day with the heading “Memphis’ Pimp Hand is Strong.” Several people have pulled out the Dave Chapelle/Charlie Murphy/Rick James joke “What did the five fingers say to the face? SLAP!”

I can almost always count on Chris Vernon to find the humor in anything, so I was surprised at his serious take on the “fight.” Verno was there in person and says Pierre Niles was “looking for trouble.”

Of course, this whole incident is the butt of so many jokes only because things didn’t escalate further and because no one got hurt.

All’s well that ends well? Hopefully, unless the bad element that also exists among Memphis fans continues the battle when UAB travels to Memphis for the Tigers' season finale March 8.