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For the day after a major rivalry game, Gene Sapakoff focused on an odd aspect of Saturday night's 31-17 South Carolina victory over the Clemson Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
Sapakoff apparently took issue with a very innocuous jab taken at our neighbors to the north on Saturday evening, when the band played "Old McDonald Had A Farm" and a video board skit (parodying a pretty bad Geico commercial) had a Clemson "fan" misspell the name of the school.
Cue the outrage:
Gamecocks players, so classy after Clemson win. The high school quality band, not so much w/ the "Old McDonald" halftime. Not quite Ohio St
— Gene Sapakoff (@Sapakoff) December 1, 2013
Even less Gamecocks classy than the band: Game management staff w/ halftime video board skit starring dumb farmer spelling "E-I-E-I-O"
— Gene Sapakoff (@Sapakoff) December 1, 2013
While Sapakoff credits the Gamecock players for acting classy both during and after the game (and indeed, I saw nothing from either side other than a hotly-contested, fierce, but clean game), this sort of faux outrage is the currency of those who provide commentary on the game. As Spencer Hall so aptly summarized last year, it's garbage.
I'm not sure what made him decide to lash out on Twitter about this on Sunday, while otherwise tweeting about the Gamecock victory, but it reminds me of the type of article that angered people so much about Ron Morris over the years. It's stirring controversy for the sake of doing so. It's pining for a false sense of chivalry or manners or something that never existed before and never will.
I just wonder how Gene would handle an Army versus Navy game if he ever attended one - it's just classless video after classless video on the scoreboard, all game. I look forward to his commentary about how those two schools could learn a thing or two about how to be proper rivals and respect each other on and off the field.
