Bad idea: Pregame handshakes in college football
The Thirsty Beagle is all for sportsmanship. Lebron James not shaking hands after the NBA finals: Bad move. Pitchers throwing coolers onto the field after getting tossed: Bad move. Football players spitting in their opponents’ faces: Bad move. Well apparently the NCAA is all for sportsmanship, too. So they’ve decided to test something out at college football games. Pregame handshakes for the players. According to this report, the move is being tested only for the first week of play this season, and even then it is being 
treated as a voluntary deal. Officials hope the idea will be warmly accepted and perhaps catch on for the rest of the year. This all seems like a real nice gesture, but did the people who make NCAA football rules forget something? Namely that perhaps the worst time ever to bring college football opponents face to face is right before the start of a game? This is the time they are the most worked up, the most fired up, the most frothed over and the most likely to go berserk on an opponent. For example, I heard Sam Mayes on The Sports Animal the other day talking about OSU’s 2003 game at OU. Mayes told a story about Dan Cody laying into the entire Cowboys team with a string of threats and expletives for the duration of pregame stretching and warm-up. The last thing anyone needs in a situation like this is to put the players in physical contact with each other. How soon before a handshake gets a little too firm or a choice word is traded while the players are in close quarters? Then you’ve got helmets flying and an all-out brawl on your hands. I’m just sayin’, sportsmanship: Good. Handshakes that turn into headbutts: Bad.
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