Colleges

Richt sorry for end zone party

Georgia coach Mark Richt sent a letter to the SEC league office Monday apologizing to SEC commissioner Mike Slive, and the University of Florida, for Saturday's incident in which the entire Georgia team ran into the end zone to celebrate the Bulldogs' first touchdown in the 42-30 victory over Florida.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published October 30, 2007

Controversy still swirled two days after Georgia's decision to swarm the field after its first touchdown Saturday against Florida.
	[Getty Images]

GAINESVILLE - Georgia coach Mark Richt sent a letter to the SEC league office Monday apologizing to SEC commissioner Mike Slive, and the University of Florida, for Saturday's incident in which the entire Georgia team ran into the end zone to celebrate the Bulldogs' first touchdown in the 42-30 victory over Florida. ¶ Although Richt acknowledged again that two weeks ago he encouraged the team to celebrate to the point of receiving a flag for excessive celebration after its first touchdown to bring more energy and enthusiasm to the game, he said he realizes now it was not the right thing to do.

"I admit this was inappropriate," he wrote. "What I had envisioned was for the 11 guys on the field to celebrate the score.

"On the day of the game I re-emphasized to the team that this was not going to be an individual celebration, but a team celebration. Again, I was expecting the 11 players on the field to be doing the celebrating, not for the bench to clear as it did. I understand that the entire team running on the field created the potential for an altercation and that excessive celebration is not in compliance with the Southeastern Conference sportsmanship policies and expected standards.

"My only intention was to create enthusiasm. I apologize that I put everyone in that situation and specifically apologize to you, the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Florida. You can be assured I will not ask our team to do this type of thing again."

SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said Slive has accepted Georgia's apology and the matter is considered closed.

KEEPING PERSPECTIVE: It took one brief, long-distance conversation with one of his older sisters for Tim Tebow to do what no one else had been able to do after Saturday's bitter loss.

The Jacksonville native took the loss extremely hard. The Gators were supposed to be better than they had been in the past few games. Tebow felt they had improved, and they were in a three-way tie for first place in the SEC East. Then just like that, they are one game out of last place and struggling.

"I do take it losing pretty hard because I am so passionate about it (the game)," Tebow said. "I love playing the game, and I hate losing."

Which is why his conversation with sister Christy Allen came at the perfect time. Just a week ago, Allen, her husband, Joey, and their toddler daughter arrived in Bangladesh, where they will work as missionaries during the next three years.

They had gotten up in the middle of the night to listen to the Florida-Georgia game. They knew the outcome wasn't in Tebow's favor.

"My sister just left Monday for Bangladesh as a missionary, the second-poorest country in the world," Tebow said. "She's over there. I talked to her after the game and (realized) losing to Georgia isn't the biggest thing in the world. I talked to her, it was not even what she said, but what she's doing, where she is and how she's living her life was enough. ...

"It makes you realize this game, it really doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things."

SEASON OVER: Florida's already struggling defense took another big hit over the weekend. Defensive lineman Javier Estopinan injured his left ACL on Saturday and will miss the remainder of the season.

It is the third ACL injury of his career. The redshirt junior from Miami played in eight games this season and started seven. He had a career-best game against Auburn with five tackles, two for loss.

"He's coming back," Meyer said. "He's going to be one of our leaders next year. His family was here yesterday. I relate it to the day I sat in my office and (former defensive tackle) Ray McDonald got the phone call (he had suffered another ACL injury).

"It is hard to see, especially for invested players. When you see him grab his knee like that. That kid would not come out of the game. I looked in that kid's face on the sideline and he's a smart guy. He's been through it a couple of times. There is no one better than Javier."

[Last modified October 30, 2007, 00:04:38]