We can’t help but notice a modern video trend we like to call, ‘large men thinking they can ride with mixed results‘. The latest of these is a truly great bit of slapstick from Alabama’s Auburn University. Originally created as part of Auburn’s AUSPY athletic award show last month, the video was a huge hit, and it’s easy to see why.
Two of the stars of this installment, CJ Uzomah, a graduating senior football player, and Elizabeth Benson, a rising senior on the equestrian team, gamely volunteered to switch places in their two, very different sports.
“Ninety percent of our shoots had a set storyline,” said video co-producer Karina Anglada, “and while we had a vision for the equestrian shoot, we weren’t sure exactly how [it] would turn out due to working with the horses.” For safety purposes, the video team originally planned to film Uzomah on the horse, barely trotting, with Benson leading him around. But at the beginning of the shoot, they changed tactics when Uzomah, who had never ridden before, bravely announced that he wanted to give it a go.
Thankfully, there is one thing riders and football players do have in common: they both know how to take a hit.
Which, along with being an object lesson in why you should probably never ride in sneakers, makes for some pretty solid entertainment. Take a look: