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Saturday, May 24, 2025

Richt's actions not out of line

Can we please move past this whole

Georgia rushing the field thing?

Bulldogs coach Mark Richt issued

an apology to UF and SEC commissioner Mike Slive for encouraging

his players to receive a penalty following their first score

against the Gators.

Slive accepted the apology and no

disciplinary action is planned, something that threw plenty of

people into a tizzy.

There are outraged fans and even

an open letter to Slive on GatorCountry.com railing against Slive's

preposterous decision to not have Richt thrown in jail or

something.

The move has been called a

classless motivational tool. The latter part is certainly true as

UGA played with intensity for the full game and won.

As far as the classless part,

since when is football classy?

"Okay son, you're going to get

real big and real fast, and we'll make sure you get good grades,

you just leave that to me. We'll convince a few other boys to move

across town and play with you so we can win. If you play well

enough, some big-name college is going to admit you above thousands

of applicants with better grades than you that can't run as fast as

you, and you'll go there for free! Once you're there, you'll never

have to buy your own drinks and you'll have the best of everything.

All you have to do is beat the hell out of everyone you see on the

field."

That was a bit of an exaggeration,

but the case has certainly occurred more than once.

Is that classy? No.
Were Richt's actions? Probably

not, but who cares?

There was no near fight. UF

players were standing all around the pile and no one acted. If

anything, it motivated the Gators further.

Maybe if Urban Meyer had let his

team loose a bit the outcome could have been different.

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There is something to be said for

players and coaches that command respect and carry themselves with

dignity, but there's more said for winners.

Sports is entertainment, nothing

more or less.

When it comes down to motivating a

football team to grind out a win, class doesn't always cut

it.

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