Every June 14, we celebrate Flag Day.
Every final Saturday of the college football regular season, we cringe at it.
At least, many of us do.
It’s not enough now to play more than three hours of football, 60 minutes (or more, if it goes OT) on the game clock, and feel great about a long-anticipated win in a traditional rivalry game.
Some attention-hungry knuckleheads believe proudly looking at the scoreboard just isn’t good enough, if you happen to be the visiting team.
Last Saturday was the final regular-season playing date for major colleges, and all of the others in the upper-tier Football Bowl Subdivision. A relative few of them, those 42 (among 134) who are not bowl-bound, leave the field for the last time while Thanksgiving leftovers are still being served.
Schedules are generally designed to make the last game a big one, ideally against a rival. I’m not talking about LSU-Oklahoma or Louisiana Tech-Kennesaw State. Those don’t bump the blood pressure for anyone not pulling on a helmet or headset.
You know the games that get the juices flowing when they’re brought up on the actual Flag Day, or Independence Day, or Labor Day, or by Ryan Day. Although he’s not liable to raise this topic in public for a while.
The Ohio State coach, looking stunned into a stupor after his offense played that way all afternoon against Michigan, watched passively as some of his Buckeyes decided to finally defend their turf not long after the final horn of their shocking 13-10 loss to the hated Wolverines at the Big Horseshoe in Columbus.
It was the first of eight, count ‘em, EIGHT postgame scuffles (some like OSU-Michigan briefly deteriorated into brawls, although somehow, no injuries were noted) in major college stadiums Saturday. Most happened after winning visiting teams had turkeys who felt justified to plant their school flags on the midfield logo of the defeated rival.
The shameful list also included (losing home teams first) North Carolina-North Carolina State, Clemson-South Carolina, Texas A&M-Texas, Florida State-Florida, Arizona-Arizona State, and non-flag unpleasantries between (homefield winners first) Notre Dame and USC, Alabama and Auburn, and Missouri and Arkansas.
Just 99 times out of 100, these shoving matches erupt when somebody from the winning team feels the need to taunt a losing opponent.
Do it during the game and it’s 15 yards, unsportsmanlike conduct, as it should be.
But following (if feasible; the intensity of rivalry games can be boiling moments after they end) postgame handshakes and school songs, referees are long gone and so is the integrity of too many coaches.
Guys who spend 364 ¾ days preaching discipline to their players too often cower when they should be leading. I’m no Buckeyes fan, and I think firing Ryan Day because he’s lost to the Wolverines four straight times is absurd. But considering firing him for his impotent behavior postgame Saturday is justifiable, and in a more perfect college sports world, he ought to face some consequences. Same for his Michigan counterpart, Sherrone Moore, nowhere to be seen, also inexcusable, particularly since his players lit the fuse and tried to plant their flag.
Those consequences should be handled by leadership. Not at the conference office, as happened in a couple cases already, but right there in Columbus, and Ann Arbor. On campus.
Considering the millions these coaches collect, it should be demanded that they represent their colleges with class, not cowardice.
Of course, that would require integrity at higher levels, in the AD and presidents’ offices. Doing the right thing, however, would surely be viewed as “damaging our brand” by at minimum reprimanding the most visible person on campus.
Character is not convenience. It’s who we really are and want to be.
Maybe the answer is to replace the school flags with the Stars and Stripes.
At the very least, the entire teams from those Ugly Eight ought to have to watch the end of this year’s Army-Navy game, and see those young men respectfully standing alongside their foes during their alma maters, to see what true sportsmanship looks like.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com