Clemson's Boulware: Wilkins' grab 'aggressive,' but we've done it all year

One of the weirdest incidents in recent memory happened in last weekend's Fiesta Bowl when Clemson's Christian Wilkins grabbed Ohio State's Curtis Samuel in his groin area following a whistle.

While most onlookers would assume that's out-of-the-ordinary behavior, Tigers linebacker Ben Boulware insists it's a normal thing in football and that the media is blowing it out of proportion.

"We've done it all year to mess with players," Boulware said, according to David M. Hale of ESPN. "No one has done it as aggressive as Christian did. We try to be more discreet about it. He grabbed a handful."

Related: Clemson's Wilkins gets handsy with opponent's nether regions

The incident, which occurred while Samuel was on the ground after being tackled, drew immediate and widespread attention. Echoing his teammate's postgame sentiments, Boulware said the act was done in jest.

"It's annoying because the players don't care," Boulware told reporters, as per Brian Hamilton of Sports Illustrated. "Like, you saw Samuel didn't do anything at all. That's for the media to blow that up. Yes, Christian went - he went about four fingers deep. He went a little too far. But when I'm just messing with somebody, poking them in the belly button of grabbing somebody's butt, it's just to break up the seriousness of the game. The people who are freaking out about that have never played the game, or were just losers who didn't have any friends when they played the game."

Boulware wasn't done there, continuing in his attack on anyone who doesn't understand Wilkins' behavior.

"I know there's going to be that one person: 'Well, I played football and I never did that,'" he said. "You either sucked at football, you had no friends in the locker room, or you were the person that went to the bathroom stall to go change because you were scared to shower with the team."

If nothing else, Boulware definitely took some attention off the national championship game against Alabama for at least a couple hours on Wednesday.