Boycotts sure seem fun. Whether it’s tea or Arizona, the events of last fall made us want to try our hand at it — especially after Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8, brought a resolution before the Alcohol License Review Committee to reserve one of the already-proposed new seats for a student of a downtown university. True to form, Eagon chalked up a great play. The time was ripe for action. It was Super Bowl XXVII, and with Eagon as the fearsome Leon Lett, we were going to cruise to the win.

But the proposal unleashed a wave of opposition, the shrillest of which came from the Tavern League. Afraid that students would unfairly favor the Rathskeller and be unable to comprehend policy, or something like that, Marsh Shapiro and Barb Mercer (aka Marshy Marsh and the cranky bunch) sought to dismiss any standing we had in the matter, saying, “And I’m not so sure that students should be involved in the business we have here.”

Well, for starters, we make up one quarter of this city, and as Ms. Mercer pointed out, we help support about one-third of the tavern league’s bars. In the face of such opposition, we decided to throw our weight behind Eagon and get after it — specifically get after the Tavern League’s Jim Kelly — the Nitty Gritty. Whether or not it worked, the boycott generated buzz and turnout for the big vote. And also stuck our necks out on the line.

Only the City Council wasn’t voting on a permanent student member anymore.

An eleventh hour deal between Eagon and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. With Mayor Dave on record as saying he would have appointed a student to the new position regardless of whether or not the measure passed, Eagon backed off.

The ensuing meeting proved it to be a giant mistake, as the hostility to a student member of ALRC was made known from several corners (including Mayor Dave’s).

To get a student reappointed in three years, students will have to fight the same fight all over again. Even after the smell of cigars and scotch get dry cleaned out of Eagon’s sport coat, the opposition will remain. The papers will have to make noise, Legislative Affairs will have to lobby and people will have to show up.

So after birthing the idea, Eagon fumbled, or should we say dropped the ball, just yards from the end zone. And just like Leon Lett in that Super Bowl 17 years ago, it wasn’t that Don Beebe was that fast, it was that Leon Lett was just that dumb.