Handshakes in college football?

Should College Players shake hands?

It all depends.

This is based off some new rule that the college coaches wanted teams to shake hands before the game. This was met with a LOT of resistance, most notably from the head coach of Oklahoma State…remember folks, he’s a MAN!

(you have to remember the clip of his tirade to get that joke)

But in seriousness, I agree fully with him. I was watching some shows on ESPN and one of my fav shows was “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption”. On ATH, they debated this issue, and one of the columnists, Jackie McMullen, said that if a coach can’t control his players for just a few seconds then shame on him.

I agree fully with Jackie on that…and the logic is pure, but this is a game of emotions, and for that reason, I can’t fully agree with her. She is basing it on the premise that these guys are going to be nice and clean before the game starts, and that any coach worth his salt can control his team.

I strongly disagree.

Consider what these students go through in the weeks before their first game. And as I talk about it, feel free to add on stuff that Michigan is in trouble for. These young men come to practice many times earlier than NCAA rules say they should, and are worked many times MORE than the rules allow (under cover of discretion).

These young men are taught day in and day out to max out their potential, to strive to do more than their best, to push their bodies and minds to the limit. There is no room for the weak in these often hot and sweaty practices that seem to go on forever. All this is to get the play mentally ready to tear the head off any person NOT wearing their similar uniform. It’s military drilling at it’s best folks.

You get into the mind of these young men long enough, it will begin be what the coach wants it to be, and you are at the will of whatever your coach wants. Every college coach wants their players to be an animal on the field, but off the field we always expect them to be pure gentlemen. And that’s true for most athletes, but remember folks, football is a violent sport…and often times it takes a violent mentality to play it.

You go through this for weeks on end, and you are starving to hit somebody else rather than your teammates…and game time comes, and your level of beast hood is at it’s highest….

And you have to do something gentlemanly like shake hands?

Come on folks, that’s not gonna happen.

I disagree that teams ought to be trained enough to do that, what do you expect will happen if you put Texas and Oklahoma in front of each other like that…or Michigan and Michigan State, or USC and UCLA, or Florida and LSU, or any team like that?

To me it is asking too much to ask a team to do that. Now, if you brought out representatives of the team, no more than 5 from each side, that would be cool. But I like the way one guy on ATH put it, that you might have some guy on the third string that won’t get any playing time, and this is his only way to “vent” his emotions.

Or, you could have what happened at the Oregon/ Boise State game…

The gesture of good will is always important, and sometimes you see teams gather together after a game to pray…always an excellent sign of good will. But right now, at the beginning of a season, with everybody ready to hit one another, not a good idea. For this to really work, it would unfortunately take a serious situation to cause every team to realize how small football is….

Consider what happened after 911.…

Only then did our country, and sports, understand the importance of ALL of us getting along. We might be going through some economical situations, but it has not gotten to the point where many of those teams would consider the whole state of affairs before a game starts.

Now, do I believe shaking hands is a good idea…sure, in theory. But you are asking guys to “break character” before a game, this is not what coaches teach their players. IF you are going to do it, I think it would work best for representatives, not the team, to shake hands.

In all seriousness, I think the only teams that are capable of pre-game handshakes are our military schools, Army, Navy and Air Force. I say that because I believe those guys are more disciplined than a regular school. It would also be a positive show of good will to see our boys in uniform shake hands before a game. But outside of that, I just can’t see Ohio State shaking hands with Penn State or Michigan… I didn’t say it can’t happen, I just don’t see what you gain by doing that. I mean, are all the fans going to say, “awwww, ain’t that cute. The Longhorns are shaking hands with the Sooners….NOW GET OUT THERE AND BEAT THEM TO DUST!”

We’ll see how this rule plays out. I’d like to see gestures of good will in any sport, but the gesture has to come from compliance from both sides, not handed down from some authority. Good will comes from the heart, so if two teams decide to do it, that is far better than if they were told to do it. But again, we shall see how it plays out.