It’s nice to watch Mississippi State whip Kentucky’s ass, only because it makes our loss to MSU SLIGHTLY less painful.
It’s nice to also see that UGA has sunken to Florida’s level as it relates to discipline and personal fouls, although I hope Florida loses and has 47 people injured.
I don’t give a shit if UGA has sunken to Al Qaeda’s level…if it means we beat UF.
Good post on the subject that I found…
Coach Directed End Zone Dancing or the End of Life as We Know It Reply
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Disrespectful, Hypocritical, Classless, Tacky, and branded Fools by the AJC. Absolutely amazing. Sporting events since the times of the Roman Coliseum have reflected their society. The rules that we choose to govern our life, whether we like it or not will always cast their shadow on the games we play. I have been amused at some of our fans using adjectives like tacky and unsportsmanlike like when describing our first quarter celebration( especially the word tacky that has no place in the football vernacular as a descriptor). In fact I read a couple of our fans say they thought the celebration was bad sportsmanship but a good coaching decision. Mind boggling really. Call me old fashion but I think the two are mutually exclusive. I was mildly surprised when Lou Holtz ( I think it was him, he is shrinking so fast now you can only see the top of his bad rug behind the desk) say it was a bad decision and blame Richt for 9 personal fouls. Funny coming from a man who left a string of universities on probation and once had to sit at home during bowl season because his team erupted into a street brawl in the middle of the field after a game. But somehow when an AJC editorialist labeled Richt as hypocritical and a fool it struck a nerve. Call me old fashion but I expect writers for national publications to support their claims. The best we got was a weak comparison of the Vanderbilt controversy and veiled implications about Coach’s Richt’s religion. In that his entire article was about this one incident, seems to me he could find a little room to actually tell us why the decision was beneath Richt. Frankly, I thought it had become impossible for a coach to do anything considered unsportsmanlike in this day and age so long as you won. But to his ever lasting credit, our local media found it necessary to draw our attention away from one of the all time greatest wins in school history by devoting an entire column to the rampant problem that can best be described as coach ordered end zone dancing.
So exactly what constitutes Hypocritical, Classless, Tacky, and a Foolish behavior? Here are few suggestions as to what he might better focus on than a bunch of kids celebrating after touchdown:
1. Dropping an F bomb on an 18 year old in front of a national TV audience for traumatically fumbling in a major rivalry game.
2. Taunting an Opponent after a game with quotes like “its not like they are a power or anything, they lost to Vanderbilt.” In effect celebrating a victory by denigrating two opponents. Apparently winning on the field is no longer enough.
3. Joyously reporting the quote because it is “good copy” but then not having the guts to ask the coach about its impact on the team after Vanderbilt smacked him down in his own stadium. That quote may have cost him the east.
4. Complaining to the SEC about getting your big T stomped right after getting your big A stomped (thanks to my brother for that one) and then allowing your players to plant your state flag in opponent’s end zones.
5. Openly smoking a cigar on the 50 yard line of an opponent’s stadium after vanquishing them.
6. Starting a kid that is caught in a federal drug sting with 90 pounds of marijuana and then hiding behind a court order that required you only reinstate him to the team.
7. And yes dancing on the logo of an outmanned out resourced team that fought valiantly to win while your team needed desperately to make a statement and yet were sleep walking, only to have a lucky fumble save you.
This of course is exactly why Mark Richt broke it up. Coach Richt was in both cases teaching his kids a valuable lesson, one apparently that is beyond the grasp of some editorialist. Taunting anyone anytime they have no opportunity to respond is uncool, but particularly if the other guy is smaller than you. To him who much is given, much is expected. The UGA program was in danger of appearing as pathetic bullies, except for the fact that Richt would not allow it.
So how do you handle a bully? You make them to pick on someone their own size. That’s the way it’s been done on every playground since then beginning of time. And that’s exactly what Coach Richt did. You want to taunt? You want to dance? Let’s find the biggest kid on the block and you can do it all you want. As a matter of fact, I want you to run out there and jump around and taunt the defending national champions or you will be getting up at 5:30 next week to run. By the way, make sure you do it on the first score kids. Because its gonna make ‘em mad. Really mad. Then we’ll see just how tough you are.
I implied in a previous post that the head coach was the leader, the assistant coaches the teachers. But in this case I was wrong. Coach Richt was teaching a fundamental that will stay with these kids all their life. The appropriateness of an act is defined by its context. We have the discussion with our kids daily. “What’s right in one situation is not in another. USE YOUR HEAD”. And learning that lesson is a big part of maturity.
And I quote the great Dizzy Dean, it aint bragging if you can do it. The quote was made I might add after taunting an opponent and then throwing a no hitter. You see, the culture has changed, and while taunting has always been a part of the game the realities of the new information age make it far more public. So the least we can do is teach our kids how to transform a taunt into a challenge, and thus stay within the acceptable bounds of sportsmanship.
As far as whether its every appropriate to call out an opponent, I can think of scores of situations where it’s done every day and no one says a word. Has the journalist ever watched a Tim Tebow game? How are his countless fan exhortations any different, other than in his case, it calls attention to himself while with UGA there was no “I” in Team. I wonder if Babe Ruth was a fool for taunting the Cubs or “calling the shot”. The answer, only if you don’t back it up.
No doubt had Steve Spurrior won the Georgia game with same tactic he would be hailed by the media as genius . But when one wears his religion openly and in view of the public, he leaves himself open to more scrutiny. I cannot help but remember that when Orel Hersheiser, the great pitcher was asked to square the frequent 90 mph fast balls he hurled at opponents heads with the tenants of Christianity, he responded, “hey just because I am Christian doesn’t mean I have to be anybodies doormat.”
Amen Brother.