By Kevin McCaskill Jr.
Singularly, I don’t care that Tom Brady didn’t acknowledge or shake hands with Jared Goff or Nick Foles. That feeling is more from who I am as a person than the fact that Brady played for the NFL team in the State I’m from and live in.
Conversely, many outlets for Sports were outraged that Tom Brady, once again, didn’t shake hands with a QB that beat him.
I am an outlet for Sports (via FP SPORTS) so, why do we care whether adults walk to one another, extend their arms, lock hands and each person move their hand, usually, up and down? The “post-game hand shake” means nothing. The game already happened. Sports 📺 and 📻 shows actually took time from talking about the game or other important topics, to talk about the lack of a hand shake by an adult.
Here are a few reasons why the “‘bad sporsmanship’ segment/space filler”, non-topic for Sports outlets is ridiculous and illogical:
They are adults. If Tom Brady (or any other QB/NFL player) decides not to shake another person’s hand after a loss or win, so what? 🤷🏽♂️. Analyze the terrible performance by Brady and Arians/Leftwich; analyze why Sean McVay is a liar 🤥**. Don’t use valuable air time or written word space for “tHatS bAd spORtMansHip” 🙄
In July, the NFL sent every team new protocols for the 2020 season*. The “post-game handshake” and “jersey-swap” were both prohibited. No one has followed the handshake protocol all season 🤷🏽♂️ including Tom Brady 😳. That is a reason to criticize Brady, most NFL players and the NFL. So why not rollback some other protocols - less masks, less testing, or no testing 🤷🏽♂️💡. OBrady’s selective handshaking is indicative of the entire league not actually following protocols.
Once again, Tom Brady is an adult. To my knowledge, the “post-game handshake” isn’t mandated by the CBA negotiated by 32 NFL team owners and the NFLPA. At the high school level and college level, especially in basketball, the post-game handshake is mandated. These are young children and young adults. Altruistically, the repetition of the lesson of “good sportsmanship” (the handshake) should teach these children/young adults that whether you win or lose, remaining composed and respectful to your opponent is paramount, even if you may feel differently. Young people should get those lessons. If they did away with “post-game handshakes” at every level, forever,...”vaya con Dios 👋🏽”. If Tom Brady doesn’t shake hands, as a professional, no one should care.
An interesting hypothetical to think about is: if the “post-game handshake” wasn’t mandated in youth, HS and college sports, would young people naturally want to embrace the opponent they just lost to or beat?
The NFL should take a stand and ban each team from sauntering or jogging on to the field at the end of games and embracing in any way. The new protocol was instituted for a reason and that reason should be honored. Since we (Sports outlets, excluding FP SPORTS) want to treat adult men as children and make them line-up and shake every players hand, the NFL should enforce their policy from before the season started, especially at this time. 😷
*The protocol was put into place because of the global SARS-CoV2 “pandemic”. It’s not the best idea to be around people, in close contact, if you don’t have to be at this time. 😷
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(Cover photo via Boston Herald)
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