Unlike the bison, it seems like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have missed the mark on this one.
By now you’ve probably seen the viral video of the unfortunate grandpa who got tossed by an aggressive bison in Yellowstone National Park last week.
The video, which has racked up millions of views and been shared thousands of times on social media, shows a grandfather and his grandson visiting the national park when the retiree came upon a sizable bison near the Bridge Bay Campground, and naturally deciding to get his phone out to take a picture.
Now, to be clear, this isn’t one of those situations where a tourist gets too close to a wild animal or goes somewhere they’re not supposed to be. The mid-60s-year-old man and his grandson were actually following the guidelines set out by the National Park Service, which states that visitors should stay at least 25 yards away from more docile creatures like bison and elk, and 100 yards away from wild animals like bears and wolves.
They were the right amount of distance away, but it appears this rutting bison was going to track them down no matter how far away the grandfather and grandson were standing.
A professional wildlife photographer named Mike MacLeod was there on the scene and captured everything as it unfolded. The photographer was first just videoing the bison, who was very clearly agitated and fired up as it’s in the midst of the annual mating season. Something about the moment got the massive bison revved up and ready to attack, and unfortunately, the grandfather and the grandson were the targets.
And it didn’t end well.
The grandpa, later identified as Carl Isom-McDaniel, ended up having multiple broken bones, with the most severe injury affecting one of his legs. But the photographer said that the older man played things off rather casually, and was even cracking jokes about the bison attack and the severity of his injuries:
“He was in a lot of pain with his leg, and otherwise he was conscious the whole time, in good spirits, joking.”
Of course, after it was revealed that he was relatively alright, the video quickly turned into a meme that spread far and wide across social media. And even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the clip in a hype video for the upcoming NFL season.
The team captioned the video “Flipping out because it’s almost football season,” and spliced the video of Isom-McDaniel’s unfortunate flip with footage of wide receiver Tez Johnson’s signature touchdown flip.
Naturally, there were quite a few who found the video in poor taste, given that the incident landed a 65-year-old man in the hospital.
Of course, there were also a lot of people who appreciated the humor and thought the critics were being too soft. But ultimately the team decided to remove the post, though they haven’t commented yet on their decision to either post or take down the video.
What do you think? Bad taste, or are people just being too soft on the internet (which would certainly be a first)?
