Arkansas coach Sam Pittman had to make a very strange admission during press availability this week.
Yes, part of his locker room really was watching the 2004 holiday film The Polar Express during halftime of the team’s Saturday game against Auburn.
The Razorbacks got stomped 48-10 during the game, and a video surfaced sometime after the game of a host of Arkansas players giving the Robert Zemeckis Christmas movie a spin during the game break.
Pittman clarified that the film was screened by a group of redshirt players who weren’t actually playing and had a separate part of the locker room to themselves, per 247Sports’ Curtis Wilkerson.
“What was the show? I haven’t seen Polar Express, so I don’t really know my thoughts on the movie,” Pittman told reporters. “In our locker room, I want to reward our kids by letting them run through the ‘A’ if they’ve practiced well. We don’t have enough lockers in our main locker to house all the kids. So, some of them have to go in a separate locker. It’s separate with a separate door to the locker.
“A young man I’ve already met with and addressed it with him. He made a mistake.”
Arkansas’ halftime adjustments included watching a holiday classic https://t.co/TxPt8OpUY1 pic.twitter.com/Bep02oj8MG
— Bunkie Perkins (@BunkiePerkins) November 12, 2023
Hey, if you’re just a redshirt player, does it really matter if you watch a little bit of a movie during halftime?
We get the optic isn’t great, but hopefully these guys all get back together and finish the film sometime before the holidays.