Lighten up, folks, really. It appears that even days after Georgia handed it to Florida, some are still upset by Georgia’s first quarter flashmob-like celebration and Mark Richt’s instructions to his team in the pre-game to embark on such a celebration.

In today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Terrence Moore takes Richt to task for ordering the celebration.

“Guess those little green men who sneaked into Jacksonville last Saturday for the Georgia-Florida football game and yanked the real Mark Richt away in their spaceship have returned him.

Welcome back, coach.

We forgive you.

Now don’t ever do that again - or anything close.”

Really? Is forgiveness in order? It wasn’t like Richt instructed a player to go out and hurt someone. His pre-game pep talk didn’t include the normally stoic coach telling his players, in no uncertain terms, that they were to punch each member of the Florida defense in the groin and face after their first offensive touchdown. This was simply Richt’s way, in a world where sports, as much as I love it, is wildly over-cared about, to remind his players, his kids, to go out and have fun. Fun is a word that isn’t often associated with “student athletes” in the corporate world that big-time college athletics have become. Do I want to see this sort of thing every week? No. Do I want to see the Tennessee offense break into a song and dance number when (maybe if, these days) they score a touchdown? No. But I’m ok with it and I would have been ok with it even if Richt didn’t apologize. Besides, whatever he said to those kids must have worked because that was the best game the Dogs have played all season.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 11:59 am and is filed under Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, Mark Richt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.