Grantham should be suspended and fined–now
The University of Georgia, led by President Michael Adams, should run the school’s football program the way it sees best. Dr. Adams delegates that task to his athletics director, Greg McGarity, and his head football coach, Mark Richt.
But if I’m in charge at Georgia, three things would happen today:
**–Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will be informed that he’ll be watching Saturday’s game with Idaho State from somewhere other than Sanford Stadium.
**–His wallet will also be considerably lighter because I’m taking a sizable chunk of his $750,000 salary.
**–He would know, in no uncertain terms, that if he ever repeated the behavior in question again and it could be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would be fired on the spot.
It took a couple of days to sort out but the facts are no longer in dispute. Grantham, Georgia’s first-year defensive coordinator, did something in the Georgia-Florida game that is so far over the line that it can’t even be debated. He gave a student-athlete from another school, Florida kicker Chas Henry, the choke sign as Henry was preparing to kick the game winning field goal. Grantham was caught in a screen capture and the image went viral in no time at all. Jeff Schultz showed you the video where Henry told Tracy Wolfson of CBS that coaches on the Georgia sidelines were telling him that he was going to choke.
Since the first posting of this before 8 a.m. it has come to my attention that there was some taunting going on from both sides. In other words, Grantham was provoked and lost his cool. In other words, he took the bait.
Okay. It has been duly noted. Every story has has two sides. I got it.
Still, this is totally unacceptable on any level. And I don’t want to hear this “heat of competition” crap from anybody. I don’t care how intense a game is. A coach does not attempt to intimidate a student-athlete from another school. You don’t do it. Period. I don’t care what the other side is doing.
This not about competition or the intensity of the Georgia-Florida rivalry. This is about the adults in charge acting like adults. Georgia fans complain to me all the time that they think Mark Richt’s program doesn’t have enough discipline. If the adults can’t control themselves how in the hell do we expect the players to do it?
Now in fairness I have to say that I have yet to meet Todd Grantham. He may well be a perfectly fine fellow. I hear that he is. His defense is starting to play better. They might play better still if he would concentrate on coaching them instead of trying to harrass players from another team.
This is unacceptable and embarrassing for the University of Georgia. Grantham said Tuesday wants to “move on.” I’m sure he does because he knows he screwed up big time.
But before Mr. Grantham moves on he is going to apologize to Chas Henry and apologize to the University of Florida. Then he’s going to apologize to the University of Georgia for embarrassing the institution on a national stage.
Then he will accept a one-game suspension and a fine and keep his mouth shut.
Please follow me on Twitter:
Barnhart and Durham: Today we are joined by Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose Hokies host Georgia Tech on Thursday night. Join us at 10 a.m. on www.790thezone.com.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1,919 comments Add your comment
ga gator
November 3rd, 2010
9:53 am
Ol’ Wrecks aka WrecksNEffect
Look I cant stand Man Boobs but his offense is legal. If the NCAA rules change then he will get out of coaching. What Ben Jones did was because his fat lazy ass couldnt catch up to the defender.
Dawgs73
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
Tony, I don’t disagree that it was not a “sportsman like” act by Grantham but let’s focus on the real problem at UGA…Mark Richt and his inept coaching. This just further exemplifies why you and other media outlets (680 the fan/Buck & Kincade) keep deflecting criticism from the down ward spiral that is UGA football.
Let’s blame the players and the newly brought in DC, but saint Richt gets a pass…UNFREAKIN BELIEVABLE!!!! If you spent more time being objective and unbiased, then you would provide the recent facts and evidence that strongly suggest change.
Simple Jack
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
WRONG!!! This issue has been blown way out of proportion. Let it go, Tony. Live in the now. We don’t need to go all PC in football.
Mark Richt
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
Nobody would have cared about this if I was at florida state. Why couldnt the old man retire sooner
autiger83
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
UgaLeeDawg: Dont confuse the behavior of a player on the other team off the field with the behavior of a COACH on the field. They are both deplorable, but are in no way linked. My daughter is in the Redcoat band. UGA needs to represent well at every level.
Grantham knows better. I agree with Barnhardt. Also think Richts tenure is growing short. Im an Auburn grad, but have a vested interest now in Georgia as well.
gdawginkalamazoo
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
Really Tony, how about giving him a “Clockwork Orange” type punishment where he has to watch the field goal over and over and over.
Htowngtr
November 3rd, 2010
9:54 am
Didn’t that kid who got kicked out of his high school say he liked UGA because “they don’t cuss”? Yea, I thought so. Some 2011 QB.
MR
November 3rd, 2010
9:55 am
You know I find it interesting that the UGA fans are so upset the Rainey played on Saturday. The young man was cleared by the courts, was not sentenced to jail time or even a felony. He was punished by the school and met every requirement that put upon him to be reinstated. I don’t remember dawg fans getting to upset when Odell Thurman was reinstated to the team after his thug activities. I gues there is a double standard for the dawgies.
Mark Richt
November 3rd, 2010
9:56 am
Father forgive Grantham for he knows not what he does
Christian LeMay
November 3rd, 2010
9:56 am
I can’t wait, cursing hypocritical coaches (like my daddy), no curfews and beautiful women. UGA has it all.
boots
November 3rd, 2010
9:56 am
Tony, I don’t get it. Everyone on the field on Saturday were adults. Some of these players are in their mid-twenties. They are not 10 year old boys. Grantham embarrassed himself by acting like a brat, but it wasn’t like he shot anyone or threatened to kill someone like the Florida back did. Last year, a Gator tried to gouge the eyes of Ealey, and Myer looked the other way. This year, we were playing a felon who threatened to kill a woman, and you are worried about a choke sign? Whatever.
Christian LeMay
November 3rd, 2010
9:57 am
Enter your comments here
Gbal
November 3rd, 2010
9:57 am
Tony – I call BS on this piece. Usually give you credit as being the only true journalist sportswriter for this paper but this really seems like you woke up and felt the urge to write a Shultzish or Bradleyish piece to catch up on the blog hits.
I watched the CSS college show this AM that ran right after your show and all three on the panel agreed that this was a non story and that people were making way to much of it…saying that people are too sensetive if this is an issue and bothers them. Fans, students, players, cheerleaders, alumni…. all do what they can during heated moments of a game to distract the opposition. This is one of the few times you dissapoint me with your writting but there is no need for this. And what makes you start currsing every paragraph all of a sudden? Is that professional? Sure it offends many. FINE>>>SUSPENSION>>> could be in order given your logic. Hope you come back with some good worthwile reading tomorrow.
This is a joke – This type thing goes on all the time. Didnt take you for the whimpy PC type.
Urban Meyer
November 3rd, 2010
9:57 am
Just wait till neckt you I am going to hang 100 on you for that choke sign. No pun intended.
DrKnowledge
November 3rd, 2010
9:57 am
The apologist crowd at UGA is pathetic…..no matter what your problems or situations are you always seem to play the “yes, but…..” game. If you have such class and tradition then maybe you should just look at the behavior in your own house first and foremost and stop whining…”the other kids do it too, mommy”….you guys are hysterical.
AU Fan
November 3rd, 2010
9:57 am
More importantly, any other AU fans like myself nervous that UGA will play lights out against us? The AU-UGA game is always interesting and this year will be no different. UGA can throw the ball around while our secondary is pretty average at best.
RxDawg
November 3rd, 2010
9:58 am
The Grinch
November 3rd, 2010
9:16 am
LOL, best one yet
Bubba
November 3rd, 2010
9:58 am
Come on, Gator fans, let’s be honest. This incident really bothered you? You won the game. You’ve won 18 out of the last 21. You beat us in the most painful way possible. You made us Georgia fans miserable for another year. And you’re really fretting over Coach Grantham’s sideline gesture? Really? Tell you what: If we can win the next 18 of 21, we’ll give your coaches free reign to make whatever gestures they want. We won’t complain. I swear.
UT
November 3rd, 2010
9:58 am
Come join us at the bottom UGA. Its lonely down here.
bob
November 3rd, 2010
9:59 am
Enter your comments here
KR
November 3rd, 2010
9:59 am
I agree it was a classless thing to do on Grantham’s part and Mark Richt should address it with him. End of story.
I have a question for you, Tony. (I won’t hold my breath waiting for an answer.) How is this different than Urban Meyer calling a time out the split second before Auburn kicked the game winning field goal in 2007? The intent of the act was the same.
By the way, so were the results…
stick it
November 3rd, 2010
9:59 am
mr barnhart and mr schultz stick it. fine something else to complain about. it is great to see a coach with urgency to win.
dawgfan
November 3rd, 2010
9:59 am
I love it when football fans refer to 21 year old grown azz freaking men as “kids.” Chas Henry can drink an irish car bomb, go to a strip club, die in a war, run for most public offices, start a business, fly a plane, wear flip flops in the dead of winter, and pretty much do whatever the good holy hell he wants to within the cofines of the law, but he’s just an innonent little “kid.” Please get a freaking grip people.
ga gator
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
Bubba evidently you havent read mine; it is a non story and should bother no one. If anything he helped the kicker’s concentration.
Barney Fife
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
You need to NIP it in the BUD coach Richt
EgginDawg
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
Tony, you have completely lost me here. I don’t condone what he did. But to call for a supension, seriously? Remember it was only last year when Spikes gouged Ealey’s eyes. CUM did not have the testicular fortitude- just like this year with Rainey, to do the right thing. Hell, Spikes sat himself down for what he did, CUM couldn’t/ wouldn’t do it. I’m sure that CMR, the AD, and Adams have already disciplined him. Maybe they chose not to air it publicly. It’s been handled. Should he have been cheering for him to make the FG? Like someone said, this is like killing a fly with a jackhammer.
Just keep up the great work of blowing smoke up the asses of the Old Ball Sack and CUM and you’ll do just fine.
Cunning Linguist
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
Grow up people. The finger pointing towards the other side is so juvenile. CTG is a hot head…he has no business coaching college football. He is a motivator of men who get paid for their play…not a motivator of teenagers getting free tuition. He belongs back in the NFL and he will be back there soon enough.
Big Time?
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
It’s death by a thousand cuts for UGA and the football program.
Player arrests, party school, red panties, losses with top recruiting classes, 750K/yr for a classless jerk DC.
It did get you some national attention on ESPN, Rome Is Burning and Around the Horn yesterday afternoon. Embarrassing publicity, but publicity none the less.
The Florida kicker should have headed straight over to the classless POS right after he made it and flipped his sorry butt off.
Classless low life.
Really?
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
We do all realize he didn’t want to literally choke the kid, right? Sure, he wanted him to miss a kick, but who didn’t? Seriously, not a big deal. That team has killed us for the past 20 years and has done it with little to no class. I still think Richt should have b!!$h slapped Meyer at the post game handshake after running up the score & using timeouts in 2008.
John
November 3rd, 2010
10:00 am
Game Time and Stand Up, what world do yo two maroons live in?
Game Time says.
…”ignorant posters who don’t understand (sic DON’T AGREE WITH ME) the significance of this…” I love it when a difference of opinion is used by the self-impressed to make value judgements about the worth of their fellow human beings.
And here’s Stand Up:
“What’s he (Grantham) going to do next when he gets by with this?” Ah, the old slippery slope. I’ll guess let weeds grow in his front yard and not tip the paperboy at Christmas.
“…AND the Dawg Nation thinking it is alright.” I believe Dawg Nation is saying “grow an appendage”. Admirable behavior on Grantham’s part it wasn’t. But all this breathless outrage is a joke.
lawzoo
November 3rd, 2010
10:01 am
Absolutely great column today. Not only was the gesture over the top the lack of contrition or anger by any of Grantham’s superiors….Mark Richt, Adams, etc. is baffling. We live in a time when the focus is “moving on” not taking responsibility for our mistakes.
The Real Truth Detector
November 3rd, 2010
10:01 am
Great Job Tony..
Now this is typical responses by the biggest failure of a program UGA fans.
Your M.O. is to divert attention from the article to something totally different. UGA fans want to turn it to Chris Rainey(first comment). Rainey servered his time, Meyer is just as bad as Richt about players. This is about a grown man, who if you looked up he is on the same level as a department head but at a much greater salary.
You UGA fans have not changed in 50 years. You have a second rate program, with top talent, and are the most disappointing program in the SEC if not the south, however you think you are a top program because 5 times in twenty years you finish in the top 15 or 20. Well folks I am here to tell ya, your program is a bottom feeder program when it comes to wins and championships in the last 20 years, even worse the past 5 years.
The past 5 years you are on the same level as Kentucky who was on probation, and Ole Miss.
Make all the excuses you want for this program and CMR, he is a joke and as long as the state system allows dummies like Michael Adams to make decisions you will stay where you are at, the bottom half of the league.
What Kind of excuses are you guys going ot make when Auburn BEATS you like a drum in two weeks, whine some more.
CLASSLESS PROGRAM, CLASSLESS COACH, CLASSLESS FAN, THE PERFECT TRIFECTA.
Grantham represents the University 24/7 and he needs to understand he is a grown man who is a COACH-TEACHER, and if this was your child he was doing it to how would you feel?
Mike
November 3rd, 2010
10:02 am
I cannot believe you guys are making such a big deal out of this! He shouldn’t have done it but fine and suspend him for it – no way! This is getting silly – I wanted the kicker to choke also!
BAMA dude
November 3rd, 2010
10:02 am
Wow, looks like a nerve was struck with this topic. My take? As a youth coach I consider it over the line to address the other team’s players in any way other than to break up a fight or to congratulate them for a good play or hustle when the action takes them over to our sideline. This is big time college ball and the players are technically adults, so perhaps the line is fuzzier. I still don’t like it at all personally and agree with those who suggest that it shows a lack of leadership and self-control.
FLDAWG
November 3rd, 2010
10:03 am
Tony your column is “the big choke.” Consider a gardening colum if sideline gestures are a bit frightening to you. What are your thoughts on growing pansies?
1eyedJack
November 3rd, 2010
10:03 am
Come on Tony, get a grip. You’re starting to sound like those libtards Jeff Schultz and Terrance Moore.
There are far worse things that go on in a football game. Did Chaz Henry get his wittle feelings hurt? Then he don’t need to be playing football. He should go play badmitton or something.
What with the staid demeanor of CMR and the passiveness or coaches seem to have I am glad that we finally have at least one coach with some fire in his belly and the desire to win.
Suspension and fine? Get over yourself.
te29wr
November 3rd, 2010
10:03 am
Tony
This is a bunch of crap Your hero did sonmething worst than this to Coach Butts and Coach Bryant( F Bisher) and nothing happened. A coach lets a thug play in the game and CMR let a QB go for touching a girl in a bar and on and on and on Why don’t you guys write about something that matters, No one saw it and cared until Pat Dooley ( a D**K Head himself) sent it out to start something so he does not have to get off his ass to find a story. By the way if the kicker , who was at least 30 yards , in a loud stadium heard this he is haveing problems knowing who was shouting. It would be a good idea to keep cameras out of the players box where they do not belong and put them in the press box to keep an eye on the lazy asses reporters
michael
November 3rd, 2010
10:04 am
media, they KILL me. oh, was that inappropriate? has any sports journalist, particularly on espn, ever played any sport they comment on….ANY SPORT???
UGAgirlFAN
November 3rd, 2010
10:04 am
Mr College Football- I guess you just got told by a lot readers- well said everyone- What a joke of an article when the real news was the UF player who texted his death threat and got to play under Coach Meyers!!!!!!! You need a life!
Rest of the SEC
November 3rd, 2010
10:05 am
UGA fans are the most obnoxious bunch of red neck losers in the SEC. Just like their program they have no class. Can we trade them for Texas A&M?
UGA VII
November 3rd, 2010
10:06 am
Do the Jailers have a higher level of ethics than the inmates.
At UGA they are all criminals.
Here on the other side things are different.
Mobile Dawg
November 3rd, 2010
10:06 am
I hope UGA does some serious homework when we hire our next HC. We obviously didn’t do our homework hiring a DC. Hiring CTG is yet another example of CMR’s “deer in the headlights ” approach to running our football team.
KM
November 3rd, 2010
10:06 am
As I said before on Shultz’s article……Waaaaaaaaa effing Waaaaaaaaa! Move on….
Mary
November 3rd, 2010
10:06 am
This is so insane – Who cares? This is football. WHO REALLY CARES?????
Have you heard coaches on the sidelines??? This isn’t Sunday school!.
I’m glad to see some fire on the sideline.
Maybe there just isn’t anything of any interest to write about this week….
WilliamG
November 3rd, 2010
10:07 am
The notion of suspending or fining the coach is – to my mind – crazy wrong. He didn’t try to intimidate the kid (do you honestly think that the ‘choke’ gesture would send any normal kid into a tailspin). He was reacting with passion to a pivotal moment in the game. It was a semi-normal reaction and probably was more a sign of his excitement than any idea in his mind that it would change the outcome of the kick. Surely the world hasn’t reached such a politically correct state that excitement – and even this type of over-reaction – from a coach is a big sin. No doubt he shouldn’t have done it, he’s said as much himself. And had he hit or even touched a player on the other team – yeah, suspend him, bar him for life, fire him, whatever. But I honestly can’t understand the uproar on this one.
Dawg Fan
November 3rd, 2010
10:07 am
Tony,
You mean that coaches shouldn’t attempt to intimidate student-athletes like calling timeouts milliseconds before a field goal attempt? Call it icing or whatever, but the intent is the same – to get into the opposing player’s head.
Why don’t you call out coaches that teach stuff that is illegal like Mr. Johnson who should be lambasted for teaching kids to chop block in ways that are sometimes borderline and other times blatantly illegal? Purposing teaching blocking that has a good chance of getting someone injured, perhaps severely, is okay because it’s part of the game or it’s what is needed to win games?
I don’t disagree that what Grantham did was less than classy and as a Georgia fan I wish it wouldn’t have happened, but your venom and anger is misplaced in this case.
UGA VIII
November 3rd, 2010
10:07 am
Whats up UGA VII how is it down there? Is the fire as hot as they say it is for thuga players?
Jim
November 3rd, 2010
10:07 am
If the kick had been missed the officials could access an unsportsman penlity and Fl could kick again. Games over, move on! I’m sure Richt and Grantham had a heart to heart about this and my money is on it will never happen again. It’s not always what you say but how you say it that counts. At least he didn’t give them the finger along with the choke sign.
UGA VII
November 3rd, 2010
10:07 am
Gratham is right where he should be. Fits right in the UGA culture.
The choke sign was caused by his red panties that were too tight.
Andy
November 3rd, 2010
10:08 am
Wow. What a giant overreaction. Why don’t we sentence him to a prison term while we are at it. It’s college football. All these guys are at least 18 or more years old meaning that they are adults. I think they can deal with some taunting by the opposing team. This isn’t pee wee football with a bunch of 8 year olds. Get over it Tony.