As Tuscaloosa preps for a parade to honor the Alabama Crimson Tide on winning their 17th national championship, there are two other public processions that attracted championship-like fanfare from football fans.
Here’s the story of two parades that honored two “perfect” seasons, and two different takes on how to motivate a team.
Cleveland Browns fans held a post-season parade to “celebrate” the team’s 0-16 record, a statline that puts them in the company of the 2008 Detroit Lions as the second team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular season games.
That’s rough.
I’m sure it was tough for Browns players to see fans circling the stadium. Sure, they may’ve expected to be the butt of jokes on sports talk shows, but not clowned by their own fanbase in grand fashion. That’s got to feel like getting beat up by the school bully with your friends deciding to get in a punch or two.
The celebration surely didn’t sit well with other fans and a few players.
There are players on this team who want to play and win for the Browns and The Land. Parading around isn’t encouraging a change, it’s more so encouraging players to avoid the opportunity to play here. 1-31 isn’t what we want to be known for but we won’t stop fighting to win here.
— Feast Mode #55 (@Danny_Shelton55) January 6, 2018
Although the procession added insult to injury, the parade wasn’t a total joke. According to the parade website, participants raised $17,157 for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and donated a minimum of 2,000 perishable food items.
With one victory in the past two seasons, we saw how long-suffering Browns fans used biting humor to laugh to keep from crying, to shake their fists at the front office for a slew of franchise flubs, and challenge their team to make improvements.
There’s room for expressing concern about the team you love, but giving motivation in the form of mockery isn’t constructive in the long run (Proverbs 12:25). In this case, it’s good to remember that words and actions can either give life or demoralize the spirit (Proverbs 18:21).
The University of Central Florida Knights found themselves in a similar situation not too long ago with a 2015 winless resume followed by a shaky 2016 campaign. They went from worst to first in 2017.
The Knights finished their season as the only undefeated team in the FBS with a perfect 13-0 record, a conference crown, and a Peach Bowl win over the Auburn Tigers who beat the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tide. Both teams held No. 1 positions during regular season play.
Although the Knights accomplished what no team could in 2017, the College Football Playoff committee didn’t consider them as one of four teams worthy of playing in the national title game. But that didn’t stop UCF athletic director Danny White and the school’s administration from recognizing the team’s hard work and affirming their accomplishments with a parade at Disney World to honor the “national champions”.
College football fans and analysts may have given the gesture the eyeroll, suggesting that holding the parade in Magic Kingdom was quite appropriate since claiming a national title without competing and winning the natty is pure fantasy.
Ignoring the noise from naysayers, UCF administrators doubled down on recognizing the Knights’ national champion status by awarding championship bonuses to the staff, promising to lift a banner, and by making the rounds on TV to simultaneously question a flawed CFB system and build a case that the team should’ve gotten an invitation from the selection committee at the least.
“They played 13 games and won all 13 of them. They did everything inside their control winning the games we had. What was outside of our control that fell in our favor was nobody else went undefeated. So we feel strongly that we have every right to claim a national championship and that’s why we’re doing it,” White told the Orlando Sentinel.
This kind of motivation by affirmation is rarely seen since the most ardent defenders of the team’s record are administrators rather than fans.
With the full confidence of their fans and administrators behind them, the student athletes on that football team know they have undivided support. Although the team felt they had a strong resume that should’ve been acknowledged nationally with a spot in the CFB playoffs, their greatness didn’t go unrecognized. It’s nice to know their school family was willing to advocate hard for them and reward them for their contributions.
That type of motivation can carry and could create a new culture of team spirit for years to come, but we all know pride can be a tricky thing. Let’s hope the Knights keep their pride in check (Proverbs 16:18).
In these two cases, both parades provide inspiration both teams will certainly remember. We’ll see what direction these two methods of motivation take them next season.
