What's the Best Part of Sports? Manship
By David Brasfield
There was only one clear winner of Monday night\'s national
championship game between the L.S.U. Tigers and the Ohio
State Buckeyes: the L.S.U. Tigers. But there was also one
other clear winner: Sportsmanship.
After the game, while millions of people switched over to
reruns of "Everybody Loves Raymond,\" (or some other
equally wholesome program) some of us were unable to reach
our remote controls, and so we saw something amazing. Ohio
State coach Jim Tressel walked up to L.S.U. coach Les
Miles, and what did he do? Did he spit in his eye, or rip
off his hat and give Coach Davis\'s big fat head a big fat
noogey? No, he didn\'t. The two men shook hands. They
nodded. They even exchanged a few quick pleasantries.
I said to myself, "That\'s what it's all about, Bubba.
That's what it's all about." (I call myself Bubba.)
And Bubba was right.
Alas, good sportsmanship did not always exist. Back in
1972, after a particularly humiliating defeat, legendary
Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant stared down rival coach
Vince "Dog" Dooley of Georgia, and then punched him in the
groin.
In 1969, Woody Hayes led his undefeated, no. 1 ranked Ohio
State Buckeyes into Michigan stadium, only to be upset by
the upstart Wolverines. How did Hayes handle defeat, you
ask? He chased Bo Schembeckler around the stadium with a
cattle prod, that's how!
And, who among us remembers the 1887 Harvard - Yale
match-up, in which Walter Camp beat John Harvard to death
with his leather jock strap? I know I don't.
Luckily, none of those examples of poor sportsmanship
occurred Monday night. Sure, there might have been the
occasional late hit, or roughing the kicker call (I\'m not
sure. I was in the bathroom most of the second half. Stupid
tainted nachos!), but I did notice several players from
both teams offering up friendly, some would say
homo-erotic, pats on the behind to their opponents. And,
let\'s not forget the time the camera caught two backup
quarterbacks kissing behind the Gatorade stand. OK, that
didn\'t happen. But it could have. Thanks to sportsmanship.
So, in the days and weeks and months ahead, you will
probably forget who won, or even who played in the national
championship game (it depends on how much beer you drank),
but I want you all to remember these words once uttered by
the great Amos Alonzo “Stag” Stagg, who said, "They don\'t
make jockstraps like they used to."
They sure don't, coach. They sure don't.
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