Organized Pre-game Handshake Is Not a Good Idea

Just recently, the College Football Coaches Association suggested, not mandated, that teams before a game have an organized handshake. The intention is wonderful, but in practicality, it will not work.

In the past, we have seen too many examples of when teams meet up together before the start of the game, a fight breaks out. Someone opens their mouth to trash talk, or some player bumps into a player from the other team either accidentally or on purpose, the fist-a-cuffs begin and all you know what breaks loose. Oklahoma St. Head Football Coach Mike Gundy said yesterday on a radio interview that if something like that happened, he didn't know how it would be broken up.

I don't think it's a good idea because emotions are very high and these young men do not yet have the discipline and the maturity to control their mouths and emotions. Before the game, they are getting ready to play ball, not make nice with the other team. Do the handshakes after the game, like they do in the NHL Playoffs. Remember what happened with Notre Dame in the late 80s. They had fights in the tunnel leading out to the field with at least three teams, and the Irish were coached by the tough disciplinarian Lou Holtz. Shake hands after the game, not before.