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It’s been a multi-day hell-ride on Agony Avenue ever since last Saturday night when that unhappy thing happened in Charlotte that all of us don’t want to ever discuss with each other for the rest of our lives. We witnessed the carnage. We saw the fake slide by the Pitt quarterback. We say a half dozen Pitt defenders fake injuries to slow down our Wake Forest offense that feeds off the momentum of first downs.
Those jackasses showed they would succumb to cheap and deceptive tactics they were so desperate to win and for that, they lost my respect. On a national TV game, that team was willing to do anything to win the game. Imagine the next day at breakfast when the Pitt coach’s son asked his Dad:
“Hey Dad, it seemed like every time Wake Forest got rolling on offense, your defensive players fell to the ground acting like they were injured. I’m glad your team won the game, Dad, but is it right to fake injuries to win a football game?”
“Of course it is, son,” said Pitt’s pathetic coach. “Whatever it takes to win a championship is what needs to be done. The ends justify the means. Because we won, I’ve got great job security coaching Pitt and will get a lucrative contract extension and that means you will get to live in a bigger mansion and we’re going to be able to afford a summer mansion on the beach. Life is all about making money, son, and to make money you have to win, and if you have to fake injuries to win then that’s what has to be done. When you get older son and you get in a situation where the whole country is watching and you desperately want to win to accumulate more wealth for yourself, you need to cheat, son. Do whatever it takes. Fake injuries, do whatever you have to do. That’s what I did to win the ACC championship and now I’m a big star and will always be a hero among Pitt fans. And being a hero has many benefits. You get to go out to dinner all around town and everybody pays for your dinner. You give speeches and people pay you for them. You’re a big star. Sure, you told your players to fake injuries and that sets a bad precedent where more teams will fake injuries, and pretty soon all of college football could become a farce but that’s not your problem. You will have gotten your championship and money and fame and who cares what happens to everybody else? Take the win any way you can get it and run away rich.”
I’m not saying Wake Forest would have beaten Pitt had Pitt not faked injuries. Pitt was better and Wake didn’t play well. I am saying the faking of injuries really annoyed me because that’s not how you compete on a level playing field and not how you teach kids to behave.
You’re either hurt or you’re not and if you are you get to stay on the field and get attended to. But if you’re not hurt and you’re only lying on the ground to disrupt the other team’s offensive momentum, that’s not football. That’s not real honest competition. That’s playing games with the rules, being deceptive, taking advantage of the notion that when guys are hurt they can lie on the field and slow the game down even though if you’re not hurt you still get to lie on the field.
Once I saw this deceitful stuff going on in the second and third quarter, and noticed Pitt was going to win the game, I had to leave the stadium because I didn’t want to be there to suffer through the fourth quarter that I knew would be ugly. I drove away from the stadium and thought about the season that Wake had and what it could have been but wasn’t.
Yes, they had some great moments and I, like the rest of you, enjoyed those immensely especially because none of us expected them to start 8 and 0 and rise to the 10th ranked team in the country. But there were several big buts and what-ifs that we’ll be thinking about for years that cut this season short of what could have been spectacular instead of what it has been, good and special but not spectacular.
This coming up short began with the godawful loss to Carolina. That never should have happened. Wake was so far ahead in the fourth quarter that the odds of them allowing UNC to score a bundle of points in the fourth quarter seemed quite improbable even against Wake’s challenged defense. But somehow Wake gave that game away and it devastated us all. That ended our hopes of a perfect season and reminded us that Wake Forest has a tendency to lose in the clutch. As much as I love this team and school, it’s the truth and it hurts to admit and experience.
Then there was Clemson. I was there. It wasn’t pleasant to watch our team get pushed around and totally dominated. But it wasn’t unexpected. Clemson’s loaded with talent. But the fumbles at exactly the wrong times. Why? Why? Why?
Then the Pitt game came along and we thought maybe we could win the big one in the clutch. The biggest crowd of Wake Forest fans to ever attend one of the team’s games showed up in Charlotte hoping to see Wake Forest finally rise above not being clutch and do something truly incredible: win the biggest game of the year with the biggest crowd ever watching.
But it didn’t happen. We wanted it so. Five days later, we’re all still thinking about how wild and wonderful storming the field would have been had they grabbed the victory. After all that once-in-a-lifetime celebrating, we would have gathered at q centralized party location in Charlotte and celebrated all night long together knowing that our team may never win the ACC football championship ever again.
There would have been drinks and more drinks and more drinks. People would have poured beer on their friends’ heads and their own heads. Women, men, children – everybody – would have stayed up late and the party would have gone on and on and on.
Right now we would still be talking about it, calling each other up, planning to go to the Gator Bowl and continue the partying, and hoping and believing that this team could do more amazing things because they had proven that in Charlotte.
But all that wasn’t to be. So close yet so far. The difference between winning and losing in life is the difference between exhilaration and despondency. We could have felt one way – blissful. Instead, we feel down.
But the pain is starting to ease. Time helps us heal.
Saturday’s sad result doesn’t mean we give up on this team. We’re still there for them and believe in their ability to bounce back and win the Gator Bowl. What’s the alternative? Stay down and never come back and give up on our team?
What good does that do? What good does it do to pout and sulk when the milk has already been spilled all over the field?
It’s a mental choice. We can choose to give up on this team or we can choose to stay with them. We can choose to be down or decide to elevate ourselves and others around us, the Wake Forest community of friends, to keep believing in what this program can do, what is still possible.
We’ve already seen by what this team has accomplished this year that it has the potential for greatness. It could be at the Gator Bowl. It could be next season or the one after that.
Let’s choose to believe in the power of the Wake Forest football program to lift us to heights we’ve never reached before. And we will. It’s the best choice. It’s the mindset we need to have. It’s the right path to take. It’s what we owe the coaches and players who have given us so much to cheer about this season.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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