Georgia Football: The All-Time Greatest Penn Wagers Games (video)
Georgia – Florida 2007: Celebrate good times, come on!
Having relieved himself of play calling duties in 2007, Mark Richt needed something to do, so he planned a little party in Jacksonville.
It seemed the logical thing
A get together.
A celebration.
Things got just a little out of hand, the entire Georgia squad raced onto the field to celebrate Knowshon Moreno’s opening drive touchdown, and the Penn Wagers affair with Georgia football was sealed with a penalty flag – about a dozen of them.
If Penn Wagers held a grudge over the celebration, one could hardly blame him. Charged with maintaining an orderly on field game environment among a couple of dozen very mean and emotional young men, and with those young men’s safety, in one of the most emotional games in all of college football, Wagers looked to his right to see 50 or 60 of these mean and emotional – and large – young men sprinting onto the field. Knowing that, beyond safety, the greatest concern of any referee in any sport is fighting, Wagers and his crew did a magnificent job of managing the moment.
However, the one thing a referee must have is trust and respect for his authority. When trust and authority is undermined, as it was with the intentional celebration, it leaves a shared sore on the team and the referee. If as some claim , Wagers soured on Georgia, the Celebration is when and why.
Then again, Wagers made so many fans of so many teams upset, it’s probably just coincidence.
Still, when Mark Richt bumps into Wagers in the Summerville McDonalds, Richt will probably answer Wagers ultimate question with, “At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.”
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