Chuck Pagano: Participation trophies “ain’t real life”

[Deus Irae]

So am I. But it doesn't change the fact that the second-place team gets a nice trophy, which is the point of this thread.

Yes, it does. There is no trophy for coming in second, in the NFL.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I'm going to go with "being the champion."

AL East Champions
AL Champions
Eastern Conference Champion
AFC Champion

Are all titles in which the team achieved 1st place thus are not participation trophys.

On a real-life level, my girl's HS varsity soccer team won her division championship but not the MA D4 State championship. That is not a participation trophy. They earned it and was not handed to them.

 

[Fixit]

AL East Champions
AL Champions
Eastern Conference Champion
AFC Champion

Are all titles in which the team achieved 1st place thus are not participation trophys.

On a real-life level, my girl's HS varsity soccer team won her division championship but not the MA D4 State championship. That is not a participation trophy. They earned it and was not handed to them.

I agree with you. I never said anything was a participation trophy.

Pagano said they don't hand out trophies for second-place. He's hilariously wrong. The NFL itself hands out SB runner-up rings, which everyone continues to ignore because, once again, "football."

 

[RobertWeathers]

I agree with you.

Pagano said they don't hand out trophies for second-place. He's hilariously wrong. The NFL itself hands out SB runner-up rings, which everyone continues to ignore because, once again, "football."

I didn't think they were SB 2nd place rings. Thought they said "AFC/NFC Champions"?

 

[Fixit]

I didn't think they were SB 2nd place rings. Thought they said "AFC/NFC Champions"?

Honestly, does what they say make a difference?

 

[upstater1]

The winner of the AFC. That's not a second place trophy.

Well, you can give a 4-12 team a trophy for winning 4 games. They're winners too!

 

[bbobbo]

I didn't think they were SB 2nd place rings. Thought they said "AFC/NFC Champions"?

you're right, although the super bowl winner doesn't get a conference championship ring in addition to the super bowl ring. so the conference champion rings are for second-place (as opposed to the conference championship trophies, which both teams get).

 

[Fixit]

Last thing I'll say on this, because I really have to run: if the conference championship trophies are for winning something substantial, why do so many people mercilessly mock the Colts for hanging their division championship banners?

 

[upstater1]

This whole trophy for everyone complaint is so overrated. I played various sports year round, organized, when I was a kid, and now tat I'm a parent of kids who play sports, there is a ton more pressure and emphasis on it than when I was a kid.

Anything that lets kids enjoy playing sports today, I'm in favor of.

Because the parents have sure screwed it up for the kids with all this pressure.

And, to answer Pagano specifically here, almost all the major technologoical advances of society in the last few decades have been collaborative efforts. There has been no "winner" there. We only have "winners" in sports, unless of course Roger Goodell is involved, and then we have controversies.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Honestly, does what they say make a difference?

They have a conference championship game. The winning team receives a trophy. The losing team does not.

If you want to call it the semifinals or the final four than that is your prerogative.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Last thing I'll say on this, because I really have to run: if the conference championship trophies are for winning something substantial, why do so many people mercilessly mock the Colts for hanging their division championship banners?

I get division banners. Hell even the Pats pass out AFC East champs hats.

AFC Finalist is poor.

 

[Deus Irae]

Well, you can give a 4-12 team a trophy for winning 4 games. They're winners too!

You took the same silly pills Fixit did, apparently.

 

[RobertWeathers]

you're right, although the super bowl winner doesn't get a conference championship ring in addition to the super bowl ring. so the conference champion rings are for second-place (as opposed to the conference championship trophies, which both teams get).

Sigh....

The rings say "AFC Champions". Some players choose to recognize their accomplishment. Some don't and view it as a 2nd place finish.

I know Hog Hannah has his 1985 AFC Championship ring it collecting dust in his garage.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

You're wrong again.

Look, you may think that getting a trophy for winning the conference is stupid, and that's fine.

I don't think it's stupid (and agree with you that it's not a 2nd-place trophy) but it did lose a lot of its meaning after the 1969 season concluded.

 

[Deus Irae]

Here's the simple, basic reality regarding NFL postseason money/awards:

1. Wild card teams get less in bonus money than division winners, for the wild card game.
2. Both teams get the same amount of bonus money for the divisional and conference games.
   
3. Conference champs get trophies.
4. Conference championship game losers don't get a trophy.
   
5. SB participant both get paid, with the losing team getting paid less than the winning team.
6. SB participants both get rings, with the losing team getting "cheaper" rings.
7. SB champs get a trophy.
   
8. There is not a trophy for the SB loser.

 

[1960Pats]

At any rate, I love how mad people get at the mere mention of participation trophies. It's always funny to me.

Because it's inconsequential.

I think consequences come with the way we treat success and failure, with youngsters or adults. Too much in either direction can be harmful.

Take the way we fawn over young sports stars because they win. I think Rodger Clemens personality is a direct result of too much of that. From the time he was 10 there were adults fawning over him.

Then take the case of young kids who are forced to play a game without outs or losses. As soon as the first great play is made and no out is made, some kid is going to have a meltdown. I've seen that one myself.

I think we really need to keep winning and losing properly balanced.

 

[upstater1]

You took the same silly pills Fixit did, apparently.

Wow--I guess I'm not surprised that you can't take anything lightly

 

[Deus Irae]

Wow--I guess I'm not surprised that you can't take anything lightly

If you were joking, my apologies. But it seemed, to me, as if it was a snarky retort, and not just a lighthearted comment, given the context.

 

[1960Pats]

Bear in mind, I don't care who gets a trophy. As I said, it means nothing to me. I just like watching people bemoan non-winner trophies, but justify NFL conference championship trophies "because football."

The NYFL has 8 "champions" out of 32 teams. That's a real knee slapper.

 

[mosi]

The Colts were once a proud franchise but they are long gone. Indy is nothing but a mockery of what the Colts were.