Sure, we were all surprised at the outcome in Athens this past Saturday night. Not necessarily that Alabama won the game, but that either ‘Bama or Georgia would have gotten out to a 31-0 halftime lead. That one of those teams would hang 41 points on the opposition, that either the undefeated Bulldogs or undefeated Tide could be made to look absolutely inept for the first 30 minutes of the game, all of that was surprising.
But one comment that many people have made following the beatdown is what has really surprised me. “Give the Georgia fans credit – they didn’t boo those kids.” What? That opening salvo is typically followed by some blather regarding, “They’re only 18- or 19- or 20-year-old kids. You can’t be booing kids.” Allow me to retort.
You can boo all you want. Now, please keep in mind a phrase that is constantly at my lips: There’s a right way and a wrong way to do anything. That includes booing. But as long as you’re simply evaluating the level of play on field and then giving your opinion of it, as long as it’s not personal attacks, boo until you can’t boo anymore.
We live in an age when a 17-year-old high school athlete will call a press conference and, once all the cameras are in place, start the self-aggrandizing pomp and circumstance of announcing his college choice. Joe Prospect will s-l-o-w-l-y pick up the Clemson cap, almost put it on and then drop it back to the table, only to repeat the process with caps from Florida State, Ole Miss and Tennessee until, finally, he firmly secures a Miami Hurricanes cap atop his head and has now deemed us worthy of knowing where he plans to play football the next four years … or three years. Maybe only two, if you’re Mike Vick.
So while Georgia fans chose not to boo, they could have and it wouldn’t have been wrong in the slightest. When Georgia Tech fans got personal in their criticism of Reggie Ball, they crossed the line. Inaccurate? Poor in the clutch? Bad decision-maker? All of that is fine. “Loser,” “jackass” and almost all the other terms I heard regularly shouted his way from the stands at Bobby Dodd Stadium were uncalled for.
Similarly, this past Saturday on the Plains I watched Tennessee and Auburn play some of the most inept offensive football in the history of inept offensive football. While there was a smattering of boos hither and yon from those in the stands at Jordan-Hare, I don’t have a problem with it and neither should you.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
Far too many high school athletes have started to adopt the attitude of pro athletes. They’ve become stars in their own minds before achieving anything on a college football field. YouTube is part of the culprit, ESPN’s national broadcasts of high school games is part of the culprit. And that U.S. Army All-Star Game in San Antonio? It’s as much to blame as probably anything else.
The result is kids believing they deserve all the attention, all the respect and all the accolades that much older, much more accomplished and much more mature athletes have actually earned. That’s fine, as long as they realize there is a flip side.
Oliver can be heard on 790 The Zone’s “Afternoon Saloon” weekdays from 4-7 p.m. and can be reached at king@790thezone.com.
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