Bill Belichick Was A Poor Sport And The Internet Is Shocked For Some Reason
Why are we surprised that a zebra didn't change its stripes?
The postgame handshake line in college football is a storied tradition of the sport (and you all know how much I love tradition).
In addition to this, the handshake line can tell you a lot about both coaches on either sideline, their feelings towards one another, and their feelings towards the game in general.
One notorious handshake curmudgeon is North Carolina head coach (for now, anyway), Bill Belichick, and Saturday night against in-state rival Wake Forest, The Hoodie put on a vintage postgame performance that had the internet ready to crucify him.
Alright, let's get the obvious out of the way right off the bat.
Yes, that was a scumbag move by Belichick to completely "big time" Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert.
Look at the poor guy! He even took his hat off!
The fine folks on X summarily torched Belichick for his lack of decorum in the handshake line, and they did not hold back.
Okay, now that we got all that out of the way, can we be serious about this?
This is exactly who Bill Belichick has been for 30 years.
He was a crabby old man in a tattered hoodie (long before Balenciaga made it cool) all the way back in the early days of his tenure in New England.
Why is anyone shocked or clutching their pearls over something that is entirely old hat at this point?
A zebra doesn't change its stripes, and Belichick is looking pretty black-and-white right now.
The headline of "Bill Belichick Is A Sore Loser" reads about as shockingly as "Sun Rises In The East," yet here we are making a mountain out of a molehill on social media.
Hell, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman just "big bro'd" Pitt's Pat Narduzzi after beating the crap out of his team no more than eight hours earlier, yet no one seemed to have a problem with that.
I've even seen some people applauding his behavior.
Different circumstances? Sure.
But the handshake line is the handshake line.
To quote Phil Leotardo from The Sopranos, "either it has meaning or it doesn't."
Respect the coach on the other side of the field, but don't be surprised when an old dog doesn't learn a new trick.