Shatel: Handshakes are just fine

It has been a long four weeks. We've overanalyzed this Nebraska football team to death. The players need a game. Bo Pelini needs a game. We all need a game.

You know what we need first?

A handshake.

After the travesty that occurred after the Boise State-Oregon game on Thursday night, I need to see Nebraska and Florida Atlantic players meet at midfield tonight and wish each other good luck — before going out to try to tear each other's heads off.

This was the brainchild of the American Football Coaches Association, which has asked every college team to have a pregame handshake this weekend. Will it happen?

Yes. Jeff Jamrog, Nebraska's assistant athletic director for football, said NU and Florida Atlantic have agreed to have their seniors shake hands at midfield about three minutes before kickoff.

This was a compromise. Initially, NU officials weren't sure if it was going to happen. Florida Atlantic had not signed off on it. And Pelini and Co. felt it was somewhat hypocritical, or perhaps superficial, to shake hands one week and not do it the rest of the season.

I agree. Let's do it all season.

I wasn't in favor of this idea when it first came out. There aren't many sports where the combatants shake hands before the game. It happens in basketball and, sometimes, in golf. Save it for after the game.

It just seemed kind of corny and sappy — sportsmanship for the sake of image, if you will.

Well, after what Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount did late Thursday night, we could use a heavy dose of corn and sap.

Blount punched Boise State's Byron Hout in the face after Boise State's 19-8 victory. Yes, Blount was frustrated. Yes, Blount had trash-talked all summer about beating BSU. Yes, Hout was in Blount's face after the game.

But there's no excuse for what Blount did. I agree with his seasonlong suspension.

Blount's punch was bad enough. But he made it worse by getting into it with Boise State fans while being dragged off the field by Oregon receivers coach (and former Husker) Scott Frost.

If Frost hadn't held firm, Blount could have done some damage to some taunting fans.

Is sportsmanship dead in college football? No. But we need it now more than ever.

We live in a loud, angry world. And since sports mirror society, the sports culture is dominated by trash-talking and mean-spiritedness.

Times change. That's reality. But I'm sick and tired of all the chippiness during games, the pushing and shoving and taunting and show-boating. Make the tackle and go back in the huddle.

I don't expect college football to turn back the clock to fur coats and pennants. I also don't want to see it turn into ultimate fighting.

College football should not be taken too seriously, but neither should it be taken too lightly. It's a silly game, and it's a great game. It's a privilege to play it, coach it and follow it.

Few places cherish that ideal more than Nebraska, where tonight a team will run onto the field, red balloons will be released and the opponent will be applauded coming off the field, win or lose. It's corny. But in times like these, that's not a bad thing. Sportsmanship has always meant a little more here.

A handshake isn't going to change the world. After all, Oregon and Boise State shook hands before their game.

But it would be a welcome reminder that what's about to happen is nothing personal, that while college football is the greatest game, it's still just a game.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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