College football Week 1 officially kicked off, but Eastern Michigan University turned its highly anticipated home opener into an online firestorm before the game even started. While most programs stick to classic banner-tearing or fog machines, the Eagles took their pregame hype a step too far at Rynearson Stadium, leaving fans terrified for the safety of the players.

The Eagles have built a tough, blue-collar image around the stadium and have even used a concrete-gray field since 2014. But this time, their famous pregame tunnel entrance went from exciting to dangerous.

During the team’s entrance, players were given real sledgehammers and told to break through a wall made from what looked like actual blocks. Breaking through a fake wall is standard in college football. Eastern Michigan’s version became dangerous because of the materials used.

When you look at other programs, like Florida’s classic “swamp” tunnel or Oklahoma’s Schooner wagon, teams use props that do not spill heavy debris onto the path of sprinting players. The Eagles stand out as one of the few teams using real construction materials, making a botched run an accident waiting to happen.

Instead of breaking apart safely this time, pieces of the wall fell directly onto the path where the rest of the players were supposed to run.

Not to mention, players were having a hard time lifting the hammers off the ground, let alone smashing the wall down with clean hits.

Then, just seconds later, the rest of the team came running through the same area, stepping and running over the broken pieces of debris.

Fans on X were dumbfounded seeing this and realized it was a miracle nobody suffered any kind of season-ending lower-body injury before a single second ticked off the clock.

Obviously, such materials go viral instantly.

To make matters worse, the pregame bad luck seemed to translate directly onto the gray turf. The Eagles ended up dropping a tight 27-21 slugfest to the visiting San Jose State Spartans.

Despite starting quarterback Noah Kim racking up 174 passing yards and running back Amareon Blue grinding out a notable 50-yard rushing burst, the team’s offense sputtered with 3 turnovers and a dismal 3-for-16 record on third-down conversions.

In the end, the Eagles walked away with a 1-1 record and a heavy dose of internet mockery.

Internet had a field day throwing bricks at the Eagles

A user named Starscourge Skeens called out the obvious safety oversight on X, writing that while it was a “cooler idea than it turned out in practice,” the team definitely “shouldn’t have used real blocks lol.”

The threat of immediate lower-body damage was top of mind for another fan, who sarcastically asked, “How many rolled ankles lol?”

The clumsy breakdown of the wall ruined the intended intimidation factor, leading Connor Stallions Fan to roast the team: “Can we actually knock down the entire wall with the hammers, please? FFS, it’s embarrassing when ya’ll have to shove it over.”

Others were just exhausted looking at the pregame cardio routine, with spectator John Lazzaro tweeting, “Yeah, great, just EXHAUST YOUR TEAM WITH MASONRY WORK.”

User HR expressed what everyone else was thinking about the physical danger, posting that giving players sledgehammers to run over broken stone “just feels like a disaster waiting to happen.”

The punchlines didn’t stop there.

A user who goes by the name of PaddyzPickz seamlessly tied the pregame disaster to the team’s subpar offensive output, tweeting, “Your offense is defective can you send it back to the factory?”

The overall consensus on the viral stunt was wrapped up bluntly. The last user spoke on behalf of the entire internet: “Embarrassing.”