LangAlert: "On the Milk Carton"

So I was watching something pretending to be a Notre Dame basketball game tonight, in which the Fighting (hah!) Irish lost to Villanova at home, virtually guaranteed that the preseason #7 team wouldn't even make March Madness, and (most important) continued to make a mockery of my on-the-record prediction of their greatness.

One thing did make the game memorable, however, when midway through the second half one of the announcers described a player by saying, "He's been on the milk carton much of the season."

On the milk carton? It took a few seconds, but then I got it. "On the milk carton," as in "missing," as in "missing in action," as in "riding the pine," as in "sitting on the bench."

I'm usually open to a twisted sense of humor, as evidenced by one of my recent Conk Creative videos that prompted a complaint email from PETA. But "on the milk carton"? I'm sorry, guys, but that just ain't right.