By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          One can spend hours trying to figure it out, and come up predictably empty.

          It makes no sense, not a lick, not a bit, not a nugget. Not a hint of logic.

          But apparently, it would appear, that a few million people who cheer for Georgia football were bullies or picked on or wedgied weekly as children by somebody named Stetson or Bennett, or who was a IV.

          Thus, the disturbing and depressing and aggravating reaction to a storybook year, a storybook kid, and the ending of a four-decade drought.

          People are offended and snippy and petulant and agitated that Stetson Bennett is the quarterback of record in Georgia’s national championship.

          Had it been JT Daniels, he’d have been the winning quarterback for Georgia’s national championship team.

          Bennett? Eh, Georgia won in spite of him.

          Astounding.

          So clenched is one faction, a notable and vocal/verbal faction, that many can’t just enjoy the damn win for a week or so, through parade day, and worry about the future – of which they control nothing, so why not relax and enjoy? – later on?

          Folks have been brainwashed, hook-line-and-sinkered and hornswaggled by the abstraction of recruiting rankings, and that if somebody isn’t considered by people with an agenda a four- or five-star, well, they’re just not very good, and certainly can’t do the job.

          Even after they did the bleepin’ job.

          Please stop obsessing about mid-December and early February and the money grab that is the “inside behind-the-scenes story” of a 17-year-old’s visit to a college campus (which is like about every other 17-year-old’s visit to a college campus). Here’s that scoop, for 2,987 of every 3,000 stories hyped as such:

          Kid comes to campus. Likes campus. Has good meals. Saw something/somebody nice. Likes coaches. Likes players. Likes the school. Thinks he/she can play immediately.

          That’s it. No scoop, especially considering how much mind-changing goes on, how much deception that goes on, how much indecision of a 17-year-old goes on. It’s clickbait gone wild.

          And there’s – apologies for th profanity – reality. There is no such thing as the top high school guard or linebacker or DB in the country. It’s a farcical debate. As somebody who has been in the middle of selecting all-area teams for a couple decades, it’s hard enough to rank high school players you’ve actually seen, with actual knowledge of the level of competition, and without being suckered by parents, players, high school coaches, college coaches, and turning out clickbait galore.

          Because of a reliance on that, unbelievable, people are whining more about the quarterback of the national championship team than simply enjoying that championship.

          Who whines about winning a national championship? Apparently, the loon wing of Dawg Nation does.

          “He’s not the one.”
          After the game. After the win.

          A faction of folks kind of turned against the quarterback who did nothing but win, and were happy to say so outside of their head.

          Granted, so many folks wake up triggered, and petty, and knee-jerking, looking to whine about something, anything, no matter how absurd. Folks ditched logic, reality, and context as guidelines to a level of respectable intellect. They see things that aren’t there. To defend the bizarre as a norm.

          Even with that, the treatment of Bennett by way too large and way too vocal the loon wing of Dawg Nation stuns the imagination.

          It’s heartbreaking to see what Bennett’s dad said in a story this week.

          “What I’ve learned the last few months is that as many opinions there are out there, there will be that many posts,” his father said. “Nobody respects anybody. Anybody’s feelings. It is not their journey, so it really doesn’t matter. It is really a sad state we have all gotten to here.”

          As for determining what’s next: “He’ll take everything in. There’s an awful lot of hurt.”

          Stetson Bennett and his family catch crap while the team wins a national championship. Even the day after, in Indianapolis.

          Kind of embarrassing as a species.

          “Let somebody else have a chance.”

          Wow. He did the job. Did the job. Got results. And people are shoving him out the door, and not with the “Maaaaan, what an awesome year. It can’t ever get better than that. I’d have to ride off into to the sunset and feel the love for the rest of my life.”

          Well, not here. Not with this guy, who should be able to peruse media and comments and not have snippy second-guessing shoved back in his face.

          AFTER WINNING THE NATIONAL FREAKIN CHAMPIONSHIP!

          What a collection of twits.

          “Not the one.”

          “If he stays, it’ll hurt recruiting.”

          AFTER WINNING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

          The reality – sorry for the profanity – is that you could pull any Georgia player off that team, and the Bulldogs still would’ve won.

          Jordan Davis? Yup.

          James Cook? Yes.

          Brock Bowers? Yesm.

          Kearis Jackson? Uh huh.

          Quay Walker? Kelee Ringo? Jamaree ASalyer? Zamir White?

          All.

          No doubt it was a team effort.

          “Well, it had to be, because of the quarterback.”

          Lawdy me.

          In less than two seasons, Bennett played Alabama three times. Not many quarterbacks can say that.

          He was – to the foggy – the reason for the SEC championship loss and had nothing to do with the national championship win?

          Remarkable.

          The reality is that Bennett should stand at a podium on Saturday in Sanford and hear nothing but:

          “Stet-son Ben-nett, clapclap, clapclapclap.

          “Stet-son Ben-nett, clapclap, clapclapclap.”

          For minutes. Or a Mailman chant.

          Bennett could stand at the podium Saturday and say stunning things with justification:

          “I’m proud to have been the starting quarterback on Georgia’s first national championship in 41 years, and to have thrown two touchdowns and no interceptions against the best program in college football the last decade. That said, I’m sorry I’m not J.T.”

          Kid has to apologize for not being the guy the coaches didn’t choose to start. For winning the job. And games.

          Here’s hoping that if offensive coordinator Todd Monken does get another job here shortly that he unloads a chunk on the loon wing that pretty thinks he and Kirby Smart are idiots for playing the quarterback who won the job and led – leadership isn’t just about stats, ya know – UGA to a national title.

          Did any one player win it? No. But suddenly this collection of clenched folks who for years throws all the credit and blame solely on the quarterback now decide to do only one: blame.

          THEY’RE BLAMING HIM FOR - well, um - WINNING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

          No credit, but oh, they love Buck Belue, the national-championship hander-offer in 1980. Course, he’s on the tee-vee and all.

          And they suddenly defend all the bigger-hyped QBs who don’t have any rings, and sure don’t have the big ones. Must’ve been somebody else’s fault.

          Talk about blowing open a huge door for opponents in recruiting.

          “Yeah, you can grow up a Georgia fan, be a great high school player, work your way to getting on the roster, leave, come back, work your way into playing, go 14-3, spend the year as the poster child for a program and work ethic and results and success, be the humble focus of a great national story, win the job, and be the starting quarterback on the first national championship team in 41 years, and a large portion of the fan base will absolutely turn on you.

          “After winning the national championship. And they’re proud to tell you to take a hike, that you shouldn’t have played, let alone started. You really wanna go to a place like that?”

          It’s right there on loads of social media and message board outlets. Brainwashed people blasting the guy who did his job, and won. That used to be a good thing, ya know? Turning the mistakes he made that every quarterback makes into some baffling statement or proof of inferiority.

          Group of folks apparently would rather have a Heisman quarterback whose pick-6 sealed a national championship loss than the quarterback with no interceptions in a national championship win.

          Flabbergasting.

          “Hey, yeah, congrats on the natty. Why y’all hate your quarterback so much?”

          Bennett should be prepared for the hypocrisy he’ll face on the celebration tour, knowing that 25 percent or so of the people who will hug his neck kinda stabbed his back all year.

          EVEN AFTER WINNING A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.

          Can we squirt some lobotomy juice in with the next round of boosters?

          Confession from an objective observer who wears no colors or logos: Bennett’s play, because of Bennett’s story, gave me goose bumps more than once this season. And yeah, there was some hard blinking Monday night for a few seconds, because as a sports fan, as somebody who respects hard work and work ethic and the sacrifices made and how the mountain for some is steeper than for others, it was just chillingly glorious to see.

          When Bennett started crying, well, damn.

          No hype. Just work. Focus. Consistency.

          The next day, perusing social media was the opposite. Man, we got some folks.

          Imagine living the biggest dream you can formulate, things going as you want and even better, and having people supposedly on your side constantly trying to wake you up, or whispering negative crap – or somebody’s initials - in your ears.

          A dream year, and his own constituents can’t allow him to enjoy it without petty shots and second-guessing. Regardless of the consistent results.

          Bennett deserves better. A lot of Georgia fans don’t. And when he says “Mailman out,” there will be too much joy that he’s gone rather than forever gratefulness for what he did.