Whitlock Would Like a Word With the Daniel Family For Celebrating Mizzou’s Win

If you missed the Alamo Bowl last night between Missouri and Northwestern, then you certainly don’t know Chase Daniel’s family as well as the rest of us. Someone made the massive mistake of giving up the location of Chase’s family to ESPN, which then had its cameras focused on his kin all night. This was like restraining order levels of infatuation. Without exaggeration, ESPN probably showed the Daniels somewhere around 35 times. Here’s just a taste, which contain Chase’s sister losing her mind followed by his mother crying after Mizzou stopped Northwestern in OT to win the game:↵

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That’s some genuine excitement right there for their brother/son who just played in, and won, his last game ever with the Tigers. But, according to Jason Whitlock, the Daniel family and all of Missouri should be ashamed of themselves for celebrating a victory:↵↵⇥The Tigers danced across the Alamodome as if they’d beaten Kansas or won the Big 12 title.↵⇥↵⇥When he was handed the microphone at the Alamo Bowl trophy ceremony, Gary Pinkel shrieked: “How ’bout dem Tigers?!?”↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥I wondered what game I’d just watched.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥The one I watched was an embarrassment for the Tigers. An inferior opponent had outplayed them for most of the night, settled for a moral victory in the fourth quarter and gave up in overtime.↵⇥

↵↵With that, I believe Whitlock has just invented a new category of victory: an embarrassing win. I’ve heard of winning ugly or lucky or whatever, but since when is winning a game -- you know, the ultimate objective of sports competition -- something to be ashamed of? It’s embarrassing for the Tigers because they didn’t cover the spread? Or because the season, as a whole, didn’t meet expectations? They won the freakin’ game. For many of them, including Daniel, it was their last game ever. Let them celebrate however the hell they want.↵↵While we’re here, I’m also looking in your general direction, Matt Hayes, for raining on Florida State’s parade. Really, we’ve reached curmudgeon levels so epic that we’re scolding 18-22 year old kids for being overjoyed after winning a bowl game? Outrage comes awfully cheap these days. ↵

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