In a laudable attempt to promote sportsmanship the American Football Coaches Association has encouraged all teams playing this weekend to shake hands on the field before kickoff. I'm not sure when the handshakes are to take place, but I'd bet it is supposed to be in close proximity to kickoff so the TV cameras and fans will readily notice it. The AFCA is not requiring the pregame handshake, but merely suggesting it to promote the more gentile genteel aspects of amateur athletics. For all the hype and trash talk that get thrown around, this is, after all, a game played by college students who have no true ill will toward one another, but who are simply fighting as hard as possible for the same goal in a zero sum game.
Such a suggestion seems reasonable, even obvious, to the sportsman. But not to Mike Gundy, who is still mulling the pregame handshake over. Coach Richt, as should be expected, is wholeheartedly behind the idea.
So, why the resistance from Gundy? His stated concern is that a brawl may ensue and security could not contain it. Really? I can't recall the last pregame brawl I saw that was anything that the refs couldn't control, much less the Oklahoma state patrol. This isn't the blind hate mongering of Florida-Florida State or Clemson-South Carolina. It's two teams who have faced each other a couple of times and only once in the past few decades. Two teams who have said nothing publicly other than how much each respects the other and how the game will be a significant challenge. We aren't rivals. We rarely even recruit against one another. Is Gundy serious?
This resistance is the very reason the AFCA is justly promoting the idea. The idea is sportsmanship. If we're concerned that an act promoting sportsmanship will descend into a brawl, well, then that proves it is needed.
Mike Gundy, be a man and get your team out on the field and shake our hands.
Quinton
24 comments:
Sounds like Gundy's collar is getting a little tight.
I cant help but think that it seems like Ok state is really feeling the preasure, i mean the coaches and team sound like they are wound so tight they might snap at any minute. Lets hope those nerves translate into some false starts and stupid personal foul penalties in the first quarter.
Gundy is an arse. That should have been obvious during his "I'm a man I'm 40" tirade, where three-fourths of the info was supposedly incorrect but was pretty much all true, as he was just pissed about being outed before having communicated with the player.
He is clearly one of those coaches--Corch Urban Meyers is another-- who is really just a grown child, where it's ok in their world to yell at people, domineer, and wear a little imaginary crown whenever they feel like it.
Conversely, glad we have a coach he knows when and how to be an adult.
I agree with rbubp. Gundy's rant succeeded in covering the fact that his assistant coaches had been privately trashing their QB. When the story broke, he managed to turn it around from a "coaches badmothing their starting QB" to "Gundy defends starting QB."
The whole episode was unprofessional of Gundy and his staff.
I see no reason to think a pre-game handshake is worth all the hoopla. The real sportsmanship comes after the game is over and one winner and one loser wish the other the best.
Think about it. A pre-game handshake does nothing and proves nothing. While I agree Gundy's being resistant and his point about a brawl is ludicrous, I don't understand what shaking hands before a game is going to do to promote sportsmanship. When someone walks away with an "L" in the column and still manages to shake hands with the victors, THAT'S where sportsmanship is on display.
This whole thing is just a PR stunt by the AFCA. Personally, I could care less if they do it or not, if they choose to do it at the beginning of a game.
Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. Sorry for the rant.
Maybe Gundy is concerned with Swine Flu and doesn't think his team will be able to wash their hands after the handshakes take place.
Damn you DLorberbaum! You beat me to my germ freak comment!
Maybe he's afraid this will happen if he gets too close to some of our defensive players:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4
just sayin'.
Handshake? Really? Why not a group hug? How about a giant campfire at the 50 yard line and the entire stadium sings "Kumbayah?"
Before I endorse any of this perceived nonsense, please tell me specifically how a handshake before a game and not after a game is supposed to promote sportsmanship. Evidently, shaking hands after the game is not sportsman-ly enough for AFCA.
I just don't see the reason for doing this before a game. Just because you say it is for sportsmanship does not mean that it is a good reason or even a reason at all. Even if you just say that is to promote respect; what does that mean? Does it mean that respect is given only before the game not after? In all honesty I cannot find a reason for doing this that cannot be accomplished by a handshake after the game.
I can see how respect is earned after 4 quarters of battling one another where one wins and one loses. Every play and down the players hit, tackle and elude one another for points. This is measure of respect. Respect is not given just because. Respect is when someone is held in high regard or admiration. Is this not something that occurs after someone has done something worthy of high regard or admiration.
Not that I am comparing Ghandi to football but I am comparing the notion of respect. We respect Ghandi because of what he accomplished. Did anyone respect Ghandi before he did anything worthy of respect? No. Certainly we can admit that we would not go out of our way to shake Ghandi's hand until he accomplished what he accomplished. This is why would teams go out of their way to shake hands after the game. If they had not accomplished anything worthy of respect, then why go out of your way to shake their hand. Playing the game, win or lose, is worthy of respect. I encourage those that have just battled one another to respect one another because of the effort and sacrifice they gave.
Finally, if the argument above is not to your liking then consider this question. Is this not why we have team captains? To be a representative for our team in order that we can meet at the 50 yard line and determine who goes first. Why is that not enough? Can they not be the carrier of the branch of respect for each team? They should be at least that is why they go out to middle of field to flip a coin and shake hands. Just because this has lost its meaning does not mean that we have to change the entire system. Lets remind everyone what a captain is and why he goes to the 50 yard line to shake hands and flip a coin: RESPECT to the other team.
Thank you.
Q, you couldn't be more wrong on this one.
Football is all about getting your guys hyped up/focused/intense from the word "go". You're just begging for SCU/Clemson-style brawls with this stuff.
Post-game makes a lot of sense, as others have noted.
can't agree with mitchellpreacher enough. this type of mind set started 5-10 years ago with every kid on every team being given a trophy rather than earning a trophy.
Earn the trophies, Earn the respect. Respect the game by being sportsmanlike the entire game not just a "staged" show beforehand.
Boxers and MMA fighters manage to shake hands before their matches and they are literally trying to kill each other. A one-time handshake before a college football game is eminently reasonable.
If you're OK with the captains shaking hands, I just don't get why the team shaking hands is so drastically different or reprehensible. It's just more people.
There is no reason for a team wide, pre-game handshake.
The captains greeting one another at the coin toss, and the post-game hand shakes and guy hugs are quite enough.
I don't see any reason why a friendly handshake should be restricted to gentiles. Jewish footballers, unite in sportsmanship!
Q, the comparison between boxers and football teams is improper for two reasons.
First the logistics between getting two people to touch gloves versus two teams of 70+ people is not quite analogous. Boxers come in a face one another in the middle of the field like Captains do before the bout.
Secondly, the touching of gloves is hardly a handshake. The round has started and they touch gloves to show they will fight fair not that they respect one another.
It is not a proper comparison.
I don't think that it is reprehensible in anyway to encourage respect or shaking hands. The issue is why does it have to be before the game. There is no logical reason for it. Respect is to be earned not simply given indiscriminately.
ASIDE: As I write this I am listening to George C. Scott in my head doing Patton's "Americans Love a Winner" speech.
We shake hands after and with Captains. Why is this not enough?
Why can't footballers show that they will play fair with a pregame handshake with an opponent just like fighters at the start of a round? I doubt the logistics will be overly burdensome. I doubt each Dawg will get a formal introduction with every Poke.
I'm not going to defend this all day, but it seems like a pretty harmless exercise. If Gundy has a philosophical problem with it like you do, he can say it. To say you won't do it because you fear a fight, though, seems ridiculous to me.
"To say you won't do it because you fear a fight, though, seems ridiculous to me."
Right. Thinking it silly and trivial is one thing; contending fear of brawl is just stupid and makes it look like he's git a team of caged animals or something.
Q, It is a harmless exercise. I do not disagree but my question has to do with why is a handshake after the game not enough.
I think that Gundy is wrong for his reasoning.
My last post here on this topic. I seem to remember that the players from different teams chat it up during pre-game sometimes. Does this not equate respect or whatever you want to call it, maybe sportsmanship?
I guess the problem I have is that this seems to be some ploy by the AFCA to make the problems of fights go away. They are being irrationally proactive for the sake of perception. They may be guiding their actions based upon a faulty premise. For example, they may be facing pressure from some outside group for the lack of perceive sportsmanship. Instead of reinforcing the sportsmanship in place, they have tried to think of something they can do to insulate them from this outside pressure. This maybe unlikely but this type of thing occurs and causes many to over react and become irrationally proactive.
Saying that you want a handshake before a game because you want to show sportsmanship seems equally ridiculous to me and trivial since things to foster sportsmanship are already in place.
i am an ok state student and have the utmost respect for your program as does our athletes but if you have ever been an "athlete" u understand all the shit talk that goes on with the other team, rival or not...and i dont think security could contain this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLy29aU4TgU
PokesFan 12,
I guess our coach has never been an athlete and cannot understand it. Good thing your coach has, he's 42 now, I think.
AJC is reporting that Ok State's AD has said there will be no handshake.
Richt has agreed.
Pregame handshake worked out really well for Oregon and Boise St. tonight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cYBvvF4yxc
I like your blog.
I never played football. I played baseball and basketball and pre-game there was at times some ill will present. Of course, it wasn't personal (most of the time with exception to any cheap shots that might have occurred in previous games) and once the game started only winning mattered. There was no way I'd do anything stupid or cheap on the field. So, I only understand the mid-field trash-talking/brawling that we've seen over the years to an extent. I'm not sure if the sport will be helped by having teams shake hands prior to games or not, but it will look sportsmanlike. It works for me, I suppose.
Say, what you will (not going to defend it. it is what it is) I actually don't want to see anything, but ill-will prior to, during and after the game if it's Florida vs Florida St. or Florida vs. Georgia or Florida vs. Tennessee.
Forget the pregame handshake...let's just dance in their endzone.
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