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
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