Florida Gators fans angry at LSU’s disrespect during Tom Petty tribute, decide to ‘not back down’

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — Well, the University of Florida Gators may have lost the game against the LSU Tigers on Saturday but they won the internet during their amazing tribute to musician Tom Petty, who passed way last week.

At the end of the third quarter of the Homecoming game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Petty’s song ‘I Won’t Back Down’ started to play over the loudspeakers but the LSU Tigers band decided to play right at the beginning of the tribute. That didn’t go over so well with the stadium of orange and blue fans, who began waving their visors in protest and screaming at the band to shut up.

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But the Gators really bit back when the entire stadium drowned out the band and started singing the song themselves.

LSU says they meant no disrespect and gave this explanation on Facebook:

Clarification on the 3-4th quarter situation last night. As is customary and tradition for LSU for every game over several decades, at the end of the 3rd quarter Tiger Band always plays Pregame/Touchdown for LSU. The plan was for LSU to honor their decades-old tradition while Florida honored their singing tradition simultaneously. Then right after LSU finished their Pregame, a tribute was to ensue. To help facilitate this, the LSU band started their Pregame tradition early with :10 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter. At no time was it the intentions of Tiger Band to disrespect or interrupt a tribute of someone we consider a musical icon and apologize to anyone thinking this was the case.

Tom Petty is a native of Gainesville and once worked as a groundskeeper at the University of Florida. He died at the age of 66 after going into cardiac arrest on October 2.