Why Wasn’t Joe Burrow’s Cigar Celebration After LSU Title Win Penalised by NCAA While Ferris State’s HC Pays the Price for the Same?

LSU and its flamboyant relationship with cigars dates back to 2019. However, it has been the first time that a punishment of a very strict (and unique) nature has been issued as a result.  As if the current players were following in the footsteps of their alumnus Burrow, they replicated something similar for the second time after their national title win.

The Ferris State (D-II – MI) program’s buzz has intensified in the last few weeks. The incident dates back to 2022 when the LSU Tigers thrashed the Colorado School of Mines in a 41-14 game. The game crowned the Tigers as the National Champions of the season. Well, sure, it was all fun and celebrations then. But now, head coach Tony Annese is facing a ‘strangely specific’ punishment due to it.

LSU head coach Tony Annese suspended

Amidst the celebrations, two team members of the Bulldogs lit up a cigar to celebrate, something that has been in-vouge since the trend-setter Joe Burrow did it. Following this, the NCAA announced the suspension of the Bulldogs’ head coach, Tony Annese, as a disciplinary action. It so happened that the McKinney ISD Stadium in Texas, which hosted the game, has a strict no-tobacco policy. Not only the cigars, but the Ferris players also took some decorative Ferris State stickers from the walls as a memento of their celebrations. This, paired with the cigs, was enough to ick the authorities off.

Although this was not the first time, that the LSU Bulldogs pulled a stunt like that. The team was strictly warned and fined during the previous year as well for celebrating with cigars. Annese later addressed the concerns at a press conference. The coach reported him being engaged in a press conference at the time the incident unfolded, and how his assistants were quick to manage them. “We had reminded our players that smoking cigars in celebration would not be allowed. My team was fully aware that the actions of the two players were inappropriate.”

NCAA players and cigarettes

Well, Joe Burrow is already the face of post-game celebratory cigarettes. Along with the Heisman trophy winner, Georgia’s Stetson Bennett is also sung about in college football for his celebrations and cigarettes.

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The key difference between these two, and the current two is, that the former did not smoke on school grounds, irrespective of which they got into a bit of trouble. However, the latter two did it on school grounds. Well, that one cigarette cost them around $17,500 as the NCAA fined them $2500, and the school handed them a $15,000 cleaning bill. It will be safe to say that it might be one of the costliest cigars any LSU player might have ever devoured.

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