This is an opinion column.

Again? Again.

It was the first question and immediate internal monologue answer Sunday afternoon when the Ole Miss-LSU postgame video emerged. For the uninitiated, it shows an Ole Miss fan running across the field celebrating the home team’s upset over LSU when he encounters the back of Tiger defensive lineman Jacobian Guillory.

The startled player responds, knocking the unidentified fan to the ground in a scene all too familiar at this point.

That 24-second clip posted by @SadOleMissSimp on the social media platform X has 15 million-plus views in its 24 hours online.

It’s exactly the moment the SEC wanted to eliminate but clearly hasn’t when strengthening punishments for field storming incidents over the summer.

Ole Miss will be hit with a $100,000 fine (up from $50,000 for a first offense) payable to LSU as a result.

Still chump change in the grand scheme of SEC athletics budgets, well worth it to a program in need of a signature win.

And that’s where this circular argument continues to churn over the fans’ ability to celebrate an emotional win and the ability to keep everyone safe in the process.

It begs a few more questions but one more echoes loudest in this tiny sports writer brain.

Why can’t they celebrate the victories without provoking the losing players?

Why can’t they just have fun without dunking on the other guy?

And was it always like this?

For context, I covered Alabama as a beat writer for 14 seasons. The last road loss that didn’t come with on-field chaos came in 2010 at LSU.

So I’ve seen a lot.

I was on the field last year after LSU’s upset of Alabama when a few LSU fans accosted an Alabama staffer as he left the field. This occurred as the student managers rushed to pack up and secure the program’s gear because just weeks earlier it was looted in the mayhem of Tennessee’s win over the Crimson Tide.

That wild scene in Knoxville was also marred by the incident when Alabama receiver Jermaine Burton struck a female student as he returned to the visiting locker room located in the same end zone from which the Vol student section spewed onto the turf.

A few years earlier, I caught a moment following the 2017 Iron Bowl when an Auburn fan had a run-in with Alabama defensive back Tony Brown.

Emotions are pounding each time.

Tensions are already high.

Release thousands of possibly-pickled patrons into what feels like a lawless environment and here we are.

Again.

Of course each of these viral moments come with low-quality video footage often devoid of full context. The tweet that took off Sunday from Ole Miss claimed an LSU player “loses his cool and assaults a cheerful, harmless Ole Miss fan.” Those are the words of @SadOleMissSimp.

In the real world, a football player was exiting the field after a big loss in a heightened moment when somebody runs into him from behind. He responded. If anything, the fan got off with a mere physical warning.

Enter the field of competition at your own risk, is the point.

Want to provoke a 6-foot-2, 320-pound man in his office where his job slightly short of peacemaking? It’s probably gonna hurt.

Instead, if the field is too irresistible in that moment, go have fun. Perhaps join your potential classmate in some harmless mating(?) with the goalpost?

On second thought, that looks like it hurt too.

Point is, enjoy your win more than the other guy’s loss. Watch the selfie video from the Ole Miss fan and you’ll hear him use words directed towards LSU that would draw angry emails if I published them here. The shirtless young man, pom pom in hand and wooden cross necklace bouncing on his chest, scraped himself off the turf and called Guillory a slang term for female anatomy.

There remain more questions than answers since this fan hasn’t been identified.

And yes, restraint from Guillory would have avoided this whole discussion, but consider he was blindsided in a moment of chaos.

OK, smart guy: What’s the solution?

Forming a state trooper wall around a massive football stadium is neither feasible nor the optics any school wants to present. There will always be more of them than any security force can handle and the last thing they want is viral videos of cops beating on fans before players might.

So maybe it’s a plea to the currently sober, future field stormer.

Just have fun.

Don’t be a jerk.

Try not to run into the back of a 320-pound defensive lineman while making a selfie video.

I don’t want to have to write this … again.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.