A big brawl broke out in the handshake line last night after Texas AM Commerce game against incarnate word. This seems to be happening more frequently. Is it time to end the handshake line? Baseball doesn’t do it. Football doesn’t do it. I can’t think of any other sports that does it like basketball.
Is it time to stop handshake lines?
- Thread starter TCurtis75
- Start date
I think it's kind of silly. You don't see this in pro-sports. I think if you just played a physical 2 hour game and emotions are high, you're asking for trouble in the hand shake line.. especially with how entitled these kids are today. Surprised this doesn't happen more often.
If Covid didn’t stop it, it ain’t stopping.
Regarding handshake lines, either do them, or don't... whatever.
But we shouldn't make the case for doing away with the notion of shaking your opponent's hand after the contest because a brawl breaks out. That's ridiculous. A handshake tradition didn't cause that. Lack of maturity and discipline caused that. Maybe address the maturity and discipline issues instead of saying we'll just accept the notion players can't control themselves and therefore we must not put them in a situation where a brawl will break out.
But we shouldn't make the case for doing away with the notion of shaking your opponent's hand after the contest because a brawl breaks out. That's ridiculous. A handshake tradition didn't cause that. Lack of maturity and discipline caused that. Maybe address the maturity and discipline issues instead of saying we'll just accept the notion players can't control themselves and therefore we must not put them in a situation where a brawl will break out.
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5 game suspensions would stop the brawls in the handshake line
Sadly, the worst behavior I've seen in handshake lines has come from coaches.
No, we shouldn’t stop a handshake line. We should stop unacceptable behavior. Raise standards rather than lower them. A huge problem with our society today.
I think they are dumb as hell but I agree with others they shouldn't be stopped for this reason.
Yeah, we should stop every form of polite, civil human behavior as soon as the worst of us can't handle the minimal requirements with grace and dignity.
Yeah for sure, kids were never entitled like this before now!! Like can you imagine this happening in the 1950s!!?? No entitled kids back then who would do things like this or participate in point shaving, just as a totally random example…
It’s a totally unnecessary ritual. Players don’t really want to do it. Fans know they’re only doing it because they have to. So what’s the real point of it?
So, yeah, I see no problem with getting rid of it.
So, yeah, I see no problem with getting rid of it.
How about season suspensions for fights in the handshake line. Get back to sports are just for fun.
It was awful in middle school and high school doing it for football. Long ass pointless lines and mumbling good game to the opposition whether you won 45 to 0 or lost 50 to 0 (had both happen to my teams lol).
There were probably 3-4 thousand basketball games last night, at the college and high school levels. Not going to overreact because some stupid knuckleheads decided to fight.
It's not an unnecessary ritual. It has a point. It emphasizes sportsmanship and respect for your opponent. Watch a game finale in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. After beating each other up for 4-7 games, they take off their helmets and their gloves, and shake each other's hands in earnest.
I agree with the folks who say you can't stop just because some people can't control themselves. The league office should watch the video and suspend any player that did anything more than trying to separate people at least 5 games and more if they threw multiple punches and couldn't be restrained. I mean if I got into a fight at work I would have charges filed against me for assault. Why is a basketball court exempt them from charges being filed?
Hell, you're not even raising them. Just keeping them where they've been for the past 100 years or so.
Yeap, do the handshake. If people from both sides can't be humble and respectful of the opponent they've beat, then suspend the offenders.
You think kids today have the same integrity, morals and fortitude that kids from the 50s had? Why not, because 3 guys did some point shaving to make money? Lol
Truth. Everyone would just go by sometimes not even hand shaking. Just touching each others hand mumbling ''goo game''.
Sure - let's just throw our hands in the air and cancel something else. It's not the handshake line causing this. It's people. They might have gotten in a fight just walking off the court, too.
Respectfully, I disagree. Discipline the players, do your job to prevent this ahead of time - set the tone and it won't happen like this. How often does this even happen? Recency bias might be taking over here. But for every one of these, there's hundreds of positive experiences from handshake lines.
Coaches need to discipline. Leagues need to discipline. Consequences need to be known ahead of time.
No, absolutely not. A handshake line is to show respect and gratitude towards one's opponents. If a person has low character, it's their choice if they want to show that to the world. Reputation is choices built on character.
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
Good post. I watch a good deal of rugby. 15 players on a side beating the living hell out of each other for two hours. And after international matches they not only do a handshake line, but they often exchange jerseys with players of their same number. They’ve also been known to meet up afterwards to share a pint or two or six, and compare fresh stitches.
I don't agree with the suspension thing because you can't trust the ones making that decision.
It will be like school fights, just suspend anyone involved even if they didn't initiate it or were just defending themselves.
I could care less if we have them or not though.
It will be like school fights, just suspend anyone involved even if they didn't initiate it or were just defending themselves.
I could care less if we have them or not though.
Disrespectful trash talking all game, then all the sudden it's about respect.....please.
you both are spot on. inane that people can't be respectful competitors with one another. being gracious, win or lose, is an important part of the learning process. since they are in school to learn, we should emphasize that. fining the head coach for this bs is a sure fire way to fix the problem.
We should teach people to stop being idiots.
But really it ain’t doing squat to promote sportsmanship in any meaningful sense.
If you hate an opposing player, you’re still gonna hate him just as much after being forced to begrudgingly touch his hand on the way out. And nobody thinks “what good sports!” when they see the handshake line, because we know they only do it because they must to avoid being bashed as a bad sport.
I guess some feel it’s necessary to continue this ritual just so that we can pretend that we’re encouraging sportsmanship. But I don’t. It serves no productive purpose, and seems the only times it ever gets attention is when something goes wrong like this.
I don’t think canceling something because a small minority of people don’t know how to conduct themselves with dignity and respect is sending the right message.
I agree with the consensus of the thread. Don't stop shaking hands because a couple guys lose their cool. Discipline the guys who were involved. Address it with the entire team and explain the expectations. Then enforce those expectations.
I'll counter with this: when is a handshake line truly a "positive" experience? Who is getting anything from it? Half the COACHES can't even be bothered to do it right.
There is nothing a coach can do to change the mindset of an 19 year old in just a short amount of time. If a player is the type of kid to throw down on a handshake line, that's just who he is.
If anything, blame the parents. But the way I see it, there is nothing to gain from having players shake hands after a physical game.
I never saw the point of the handshake line. A bunch of people mumbling “good game” and several times during my playing career and/or when I covered high school sports in the press, I’ve seen gloating from the winners and sour grapes from the losers. Coaches with blow by handshakes. You name it.
I get the sportsmanship thing, but never really felt like the handshake line was important.
That said, a better method would be to enact severe punishment for brawling in the handshake line. Maybe 10 games or more.
I get the sportsmanship thing, but never really felt like the handshake line was important.
That said, a better method would be to enact severe punishment for brawling in the handshake line. Maybe 10 games or more.
Exactly. Someone tell me what purpose it serves at this stage of the game? I think it's important for your sports, absolutely. But college sports should be grouped with pro sprots.. these are adults. If they aren't fond of sportsmanship at 20, they aren't finding it in a forced handshake line.
The NBA did away with this because they are smart.. the risks far outweighed the benefits.
