This has turned into a much bigger deal than it really is. After the game, Todd Haley didn’t give Josh McDaniels the requisite handshake after the beatdown the Broncos laid on the Chiefs on Sunday. As if not giving the handshake was bad enough, he gave McDaniels a wag of the finger and reportedly said “there’s a lot of sh!t being said about you” (or something to that effect) and walked away. This story has blown up and become one of epic proportions today. This is a national story that has everyone riled up about Haley’s lack of sportsmanship yesterday.
I am by nature a traditionalist and I respect all the tradition that goes into things especially things like sports. Sportsmanship has always been a big deal for me as an outsider, but in the sports that I have played, I often have a quick temper and have not always acted in the most mature of manners. I try to keep it in line as much as possible but it does get hard and there are moments of weakness, everyone has them, everyone makes them right, and we move on. This is what needs to happen here.
Todd Haley acted childishly and there are no excuses for his actions. I will never tell you that Haley or anyone that does what he did was in the right. However, I will tell you I don’t think it’s a big deal. People are calling for Haley to be suspended or disciplined and that he has embarrassed his team and city? You can’t be flipping serious. People out there see a semi-hot button issue and have decided this is their chance for sports literary gold. This is what goes through the normal blogger’s mind: “Man, this is gonna be a huge deal, I’m gonna put this out there and skew my opinion one way, throw in a bunch of hyperbole and people will notice and realize I am a great writer. I can be the next Jason Whitlock.” Stupid. This is not a big deal and I will tell you why.
Even with my immense respect for tradition and sportsmanship, I also realize that the post-game handshake doesn’t really have much to with sportsmanship as it does pomp and circumstance. Sportsmanship is about handling adversity (in sports) with grace and poise. If Haley had gone up to McDaniels, grabbed his hand, pulled him close and ripped him a new one, would ESPN care at all? No, because Haley would have kept up the charade like everyone wants. Is a disingenuous handshake better than no handshake? I see them the same, there’s no maturity level or class level difference.
People make a big deal about weddings and all the things that go with them. Women say it’s all about the dress, but isn’t that just pomp and circumstance? The Jackie Report may not like it for saying but all that doesn’t matter, what’s supposed to matter is the commitment being made. However, people have gotten so caught up in everything else that that part usually gets overlooked for how cool the reception is, how good the food is, and whether it’s an open bar or not. The same thing is going on here, basically what people are saying is that Haley could insult McDaniels mother, talk about his family, or call his sister a whore, as long as he was shaking his hand it would’ve been ok. Again, stupid.
People need to take a deep breath and realize, Josh McDaniels is a childish a-hole with a frat boy attitude and Haley acted childishly when he got his @$$ handed to him by an inferior team. People make mistakes and sometimes emotions get the better of them, but calling for his head based on a lack of judgment and a suspect decision is not the proper response to this issue. People weren’t calling for Derrick Thomas to be off the team or disciplined heavily when he melted down and cost the Chiefs a Monday Night game back in the day. People did not say Herm Edwards lacked maturity when he whined to the refs like a 5 year old in the middle of Toys ’r’ Us who didn’t get his action figure. People don’t need to be mad at Haley they need perspective.
That being said, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I will say needs to apologize. I don’t think we deserve an apology and I don’t think Haley owes us one for letting his emotions get the better of him in an emotional sport. What I do think is that he has gotten a lot of people riled up and gotten a lot of people to question him (unjustifiably) and he needs to apologize to appease those people. I fully expect Todd Haley to start off his press conference today with an apology about how he let his emotions get the better of him and he sincerely apologizes to Josh McDaniels and the Broncos organization. That will appease some, and most will still talk about it because they can write a bunch of blog posts about how Haley is not mature enough to coach this team. I want Haley to admit he acted childishly and let his emotions get to him, and he will apologize but he does not need to apologize to me for being human.
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