I'm Cool With Bradford, McCoy Being Buds

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

ATLANTA -- If many in our culture had to pick one thing they dislike about sports, it might be something about an absence of sportsmanship.

At least at the high school and college levels, there's an expectation that there's more to life for young athletes than the games in which they play. Perhaps being in school and not playing for a paycheck are reasons why there's a standard for conduct and punishments are severe for unacceptable behavior. LeGarrette Blount, anyone?

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So why is there even a conversation this week that begins with the question, "Do you think Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford should be friends?"

Are you kidding me?

YOUR THOUGHTS: Cool For Bradford, McCoy To Be Buds?

I've told this story before and I'll tell it again. My dad was a great high school football player and even played at Notre Dame under Frank Leahy. Got a tryout with the Packers, too. And while my athletic career didn't extend past high school, I still picked up from him plenty of valuable lessons about interscholastic sports.

Perhaps my favorite story he told was how, even though his team was about to beat somebody by 40, the squad he quarterbacked would suspend its pre-game stretches in order to applaud the other team as it took the field. Very classy move.

Do I expect teams to do that nowadays? Hardly, and that's fine. But for talk-show hosts to think they should have an opinion about who a 22-year-old football star is friends with is more than presumptuous. And if these pundits must weigh in, they need to remember that the games they're paid to analyze are just that -- games. There's a winner and a loser and when it's over, people go home and return to their lives. Certainly prepare well during the week and try hard as hell to kick the crap out of that friend's team as the clock is ticking, but afterward, friendships last forever.