Whitlock - Winning Mizzou Team Should Feel Awful?

I know that Jason Whitlock doesn't get paid to put reasonable views onto paper - he justifies his massive salary by attaching his name to counter-intuitive perspectives, and every now and then he hits paydirt with a fresh insight.

That said, this morning's column berating the Mizzou Tiger football team after they defeated a similarly-ranked team in the Alamo Bowl Game is a classic example of saying something stupid in a vain attempt to be original. In it, he seeks to rain on the Tigers' parade because their victory was not a stomping of their opponent. He called the victory "an embarrassment", because the #21 team in the nation went into overtime to defeat the #23 team in the nation. He was shocked and horrified that the Missouri team celebrated on the field after the game.

Jason, a bunch of 18-24 year-old kids just won a nationally-televised big time football game, and it was the last time that many of them will get to play together. Do you honestly, truly think that they should feel bad about themselves, because they won the game but didn't complete the grim task of meeting the expectations of a middle-aged guy who can't play anymore? Do you really expect the winners of the Alamo Bowl to sulk off the field in a storm of self-loathing because they "merely" won the game?

Congrats to Mizzou for finishing among the top football teams in the country, and enjoy your ticker-tape parade in Columbia. College sports are for college kids, not for semi-pro joy-sucking parade-rainers.