Sunday, January 21, 2007

Gatorade and football

I had a question come to me at the end of the disgusting Bears win over the Saints on Sunday. Why do teams dump ice cold Gatorade on the poor coach after a big win? Well this is what I found out:


It was these 1986 Giants that popularized the football tradition of dousing the head coach with a cooler of Gatorade near the end of a victorious game. This originally started in 1985 when Jim Burt, incensed by what he thought was mistreatment he received during practice, exacted playful revenge on Bill Parcells by dumping a cooler of Gatorade on him. Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson later picked up on the ploy and would often sneak up on Coach Parcells near the end of games to dump the remaining Gatorade over his head. The dousing was a big hit with fans, and the Gatorade dumping would continue on throughout the season after each win, with Taylor, Carson, and several other players (Burt had since ceased doing it) concocting increasingly elaborate, sneaky and playful rouses, so as to at least attempt to keep the inevitable dousing a surprise.

Hmmm, who knew?

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