If there’s a contest to see who can write the most over-the-top response to Todd Grantham’s Crime of the Century stupid choking gesture, it’s officially over. John Clay has managed to make Tony Barnhart look reasonable by comparison. It’s not simply that he’s called for Grantham to be fired, or even that he’s tossed out this O tempora! O mores! plea:
… Have college athletics become so mercenary, so dollar-oriented it would let something so egregious — a coach of one team making insulting gestures and screaming obscenities at a player on the other team — slide? Will we excuse anything and everything in the name of winning?
No, what closes the deal is that he actually attempts to find some equivalence (“On a related note…”) between the incident and the tragic death at Notre Dame of Declan Sullivan.
Unless someone tries to compare Grantham to Osama bin Laden, I think we’re done here.
Get The Picture 
Got to drive those advertising dollars somehow.
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Exactly. That’s why I’m done with the AJC and will not click on anymore links to these ridiculous “articles”.
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I deleted AJC from my bookmarks. It’s not like I was getting much of anything read-worthy there anyway, aside from an occasional 10-at-10 or something. There’s less ridiculous places to get coverage.
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From GatorBait
“After Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham directed a choking gesture at him in overtime last Saturday night in Jacksonville, Florida kicker Chas Henry did something a tad unconventional for the manly world of football.
“I blew him a little kiss,” Henry said Wednesday.
🙂
According to Henry, the move didn’t sit too well with Grantham.
“That may be why he got a little upset,” Henry said. “He did [the choke gesture] again.”
When the time came to kick, Henry didn’t choke.
Associated Press
Quite the opposite.
With the pressure on and Florida’s Southeastern Conference eastern division hopes hanging in the balance, the senior calmly nailed a 37-yard field goal to give the Gators a 34-31 win.
Not long after the game ended, images of Grantham taunting Henry surfaced and hit the Internet hard. The incident quickly drew attention nationwide and caused some in the media to call for Grantham, who later said he regretted making the gesture, to be fined and/or suspended.
But unlike many, Henry isn’t upset with Grantham. Not even a little.
In fact, he laughed about the episode Wednesday and suggested talk that Grantham should be punished was absurd.
“It was in the middle of a game,” Henry said. “It’s an intense game. It’s one of the most intense rivalries in college football. ? It’s just football. I think it’s ridiculous what people are trying to say that he should have to apologize for it and everything, or that he should be fined.”
For Henry, a Georgia native, the thrill from making Saturday’s game-winning kick hasn’t yet disappeared. And it’s easy to understand why.
A standout punter, Henry was pressed into placekicking duties in Week 5 after starter Caleb Sturgis was sidelined by a stress fracture in his back. Henry made two field goals against Alabama, but then missed four straight, including a potential game-tying kick in the final minute of a loss to Mississippi State.
Henry also missed a 42-yarder against Georgia in the first quarter, but rebounded to make one from 34 yards out in the fourth quarter and, of course, his overtime attempt.
“Going into the game, I knew it was going to be my redemption week,” Henry said.
Henry’s walkoff winner was the first for Florida in 21 years. In a 16-13 victory at LSU in 1989, Tampa native Arden Czyzewski put one through as time expired.
Since his memorable kick, Henry’s phone has been bombarded.
Asked how many people he had heard from, Henry said, “Probably like 80 or so.”
The messages he has received, from both texts and on Facebook, were welcome.
“It’s good to hear from everybody,” Henry said. “Even after the Mississippi State game, I got a lot of messages of support. It was nice.””
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*yawn*
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Or what really started the whole thing:
“I see that they’d taken a timeout and I looked over at their coach and I started laughing, like, ‘You’re going to ice me? I’m not even the kicker. You’re going to ice me?’” Henry said today. “So I start looking and I see the guy doing the choke. I look at him again and he does like, ‘You’re gonna choke.’ So I take my helmet off and I gave him a little smooch at him. I blew him a little kiss.”
h/t Emerson
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😆
Yea, a 20 year old baited a 44 year old to acting like an ass.
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The fact that Clay can write an entire “Will we excuse anything and everything in the name of winning?!?!” column without once mentioning Chris Rainey’s presence on the field that game pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how warped his priorities are.
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1
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Hm. Meant to put 1. That’s what you get for doing this on your phone in a rush.
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Absolutely correct. 100%
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“The fact that Clay can write an entire “Will we excuse anything and everything in the name of winning?!?!” column without once mentioning Chris Rainey’s presence on the field . . . ”
Or mentioning the hiring of John Calipari.
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+eleventy billion. No one from Lexington should be lecturing anyone else on what a university will do in the name of winning.
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The crazier the media/UF fans are getting about it the more proud I am becoming of it. Maybe we should take up a collection to have the choke memorialized in a painting in the style other great moments in our football history have been recorded. By the way, Chas Henry is officially off my s#%t list for handling this like a grown man. Good luck kid, sorry your Mama named you that.
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Good points both. Unfortunately I kind of wish UF players/coaches were more obsessed with it so they can get all bent out of shape and nutso leading into next year’s game.
We have to get them even with us in the “playing tight” dept. What Grantham did, actually, is the same kind of BS that Spurrier pulled that made us want to beat him so badly that it got in the team’s heads.
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They got all bent out of shape over The Celebration and then came back the next year and kicked the crap out of us. Just sayin’.
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+1
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4 turnovers and Willie Two Thumbs coaching the D may have had more to do with that loss (and the one last year) than being “in their heads.”
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I don’t think they were in our heads in the early to mid 90’s they were just way better than us (with the exception of 92′). I mean Goff had us to a place where at one time we had only one player on defense (Randall Godfrey) that anybody would really want. We were pathetic, we couldn’t tackle a paper sack.
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Let’s get a laser etching of the choke and put it on a plaque on the wall of the stadium.
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I was coming here to post the same thing. I’m pretty tired of talking about this, but want to give Henry credit for having some class about this after the fact.
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“…the more proud I am…”
Pride goeth before the fall, Brandon. I remember three years ago, everyone on this site was expressing the same righteous indignation over the endzone celebration and poking fun at Gatornation for reacting to it. Your dawgs are 0-and-3 against UF since then. You think Meyer isn’t already thinking about how to use this to his advantage? Think again.
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Also, kudos to Chas Henry for saying what he said.
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+1. I take back all the bad things I said about him.
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I still can’t believe that this is as big of a deal as it is…HE MADE THE KICK!! Had he missed it, this non-story may have had some merit. I can honestly say if the roles were reversed it would not have “offended” me at all. It would have actually made it more comical.
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Done with the AJC! Always stirring the pot. It’s college football for goodness sakes, not tea time!
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Amazing that a kid (Henry) can have the best perspective on this.
As a Gator, I still don’t see it. But Meyer will probably punish you Dawgs with timeouts next year.
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Amazing that people are amazed by this.
Have you never played a sport?
Has no one ever said naughty things about “yo momma” while playing said sport?
Have you never seen an adult ejected from the stands at a little league girls soccer game?
Good grief, football is a violent sport. The whole purpose is to grind your opponent to mincemeat.
And we’re should be shocked by a taunt? BFD.
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I think this series has gotten to the point that if there isn’t something to be flabbergasted about, someone makes something up.
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Naw…It’s a bad deal, and Grantham’s a bad man. Corch will have him banned from the stadium next year. If Chas were his son, he’d fight CTG right now. He’ll also hand-out game balls to fans with sons who avoided felony charges and now play for the gators being the classy guy he is and all.
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That’s a fight I’d pay to see. A lineman from VaTech with a desire to choke and a DB from Cincinnati with a heart condition and a brain cyst.
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Check out #58 in white at about the 28 sec mark.
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The coach put a hand to his throat
suggesting the kicker would choke.
He felt no regret,
hoped all would forget.
I’m sure later he’ll claim he misspoke.
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It wasn’t a suggestion.
It was a heartfelt wish.
One that every single Georgia fan shared.
We hoped Chas Henry would choke and miss the FG.
Is this a story?
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i don’t think it should be a story. or i didn’t…
until grantham refused to simply apologize, choosing to instead say, “I’ve kind of basically said what I’m going to say.”
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Well stated. An apology was all that is truly needed to remedy this situation and show players that his behavior is not to be emulated. All this media BS and fist clenching would be over with a simple apology. Alas…
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This country has completely lost its damn mind.
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If only he had included the phrase “could someone please think of the children??” and it would have been complete.
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But it does take a village….a village idiot, that is
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