Beckman To Talk To Team About Headdress Photos

On Friday, after doing something to help raise fund for charity, members of the Illini football team did something the really shouldn't have. While posing after the Lift For Life fundraiser at Memorial Stadium players donned Indian headdresses and wore orange and blue face paint.

The photos were then posted on Illinois football's Facebook page before being pulled down, and Tim Beckman -- who wasn't at the event because of NCAA rules -- told The News-Gazette he's going to talk to the team about it.

"When dealing with the Chief and things involved in this program, in this university, we need to make sure we understand everything that's involved in that. When making decisions on this, we need to make sure we're making it in a way that's right for the university. Everything we do, we do for the university," Beckman told the paper.

You know, when it comes to the Chief mascot, you can consider me part of the group that would like to see the Chief brought back. However, I don't care enough about the mascot to get legitimately bent out of shape about it either way. For me it's the team on the field or court that matters more than anything, not the distraction on the sideline.

I know that this is not the case with many of you, as this is one of those extremely polarizing issues.

Either way, no matter how you feel about it, players donning headdresses and face paint really isn't the smartest idea.

Of course, before anybody jumps down their throats for it, let's also remember that they raised $5,000 for the Acoustic Neuroma Association of America in the process. So they did quite a bit of good before doing their bit of stupid.

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