Bowlicious

Happy New Year!

I spent the holiday, as always, with beer and snacks and bowl games.

Obviously, I enjoyed the Rose Bowl, but the one I want to talk about is the Sugar Bowl. I am neither a Hawaii fan, or a Georgia fan. I don't follow either team regularly, nor did I have a vested interest in the outcome. I was hoping Hawaii would win, or at least made a strong showing, because when it isn't my team playing, I love an underdog. Also, I hate giving the BCS any more fuel for their argument that the system is fair, when everyone knows it is revenue driven and nothing more. Obviously, that did not happen, as Hawaii got their asses handed to them.

What I was really disappointed in though, was the performance of the Georgia players, coach and fans.

Not the football part...Georgia was clearly the dominant team, and they played very well. No, it was their sportsmanship in which I was disappointed. On several occasions, I saw Hawaii players offer a hand to help up a Bulldog who was down on the field, and each time the hand was obviously and rudely ignored as if it were poison.

Then there was the cheap shot by a Georgia player late in the 4th quarter of a game they had already won. A Hawaii player legally blocked the Bulldog during the play, then ran off towards the rest of the action. While his back was turned, the Bulldog hit the Hawaii player from behind...an illegal play that was unnecessary and retaliatory; a cheap shot akin to a sucker punch. No flag was thrown.

The Georgia coach made two decisions I found dubious as well. In a game that was already well in hand, the coach challenged a call that would have given Hawaii a first down. It mattered not in the grand scheme of things, but Mark Richt obviously felt it necessary to add salt to the wounds. He also seemed to feel that way late in the fourth quarter when he went for a touchdown instead of kicking a filed goal, to try an add even more points to the beat down. They did not get that touchdown, but he still tried, and that was the point. Richt also had his "Sugar Bowl Champions" hat already in his hand, pointing obviously towards June Jones when he ran out to shake the Hawaii coach's hand after the game. It seemed to me like an extra little "fuck you" that bordered on obnoxious.

And worst of all were the fans, getting together a rousing chant of "underrated" somewhere in the third quarter. First of all, you are kind of insulting yourselves here. If Hawaii was in fact overrated, then you should have been giving them a good ass-kicking, and therefore your team's performance on the field was not all that impressive. Second, Hawaii was undefeated coming into their first BCS bowl game, all on a shoestring budget that is but a fraction of what the Georgia budget must be. I doubt Georgia would have found themselves in such a favorable position with such limited funds. Either way, the "overrated" chant is just flat out rude and uncalled for. Celebrate your teams success...that's great, and part of the fun of the game, but to do that by insulting an already defeated team is poor sportsmanship, and there is just no other word for it.