For those who are not aware of the incident, there was a minor altercation between the two head coaches after the game. After the 49ers victory, Jim Harbaugh, in his exuberance, gave Lions coach Jim Schwartz what appeared to be a hard handshake and a firm slap on the back. This was enough to provoke Schwartz, who proceeded to chase Harbaugh toward the exit tunnel and give him a decent shove from behind. What ensued was a war of words between the two coaches as players and other staff tried to separate the two. The whole thing culminated in a face-off of sorts in which most of the players were involved. The stare-down cooled off after a minute and the Lions proceeded to exit the field.
Naturally reporters, news writers, and other members of the media had a field day during the post-game press conference, mining both coaches for reactions and possible significance behind the incident. Were Harbaugh’s actions rude? Did he in fact use some sort of profanity? Did Schwartz just overreact? Or was “the handshake” in retaliation to a previous action on the part of Schwartz?
Whatever the case, I find it kind of amusing how the press turns a minor incident into a national story. The incident is all over the ESPN highlight reels. Sports talk radio is using it to fill hours upon hours of air time, and it’s still on the front page of the Chronicle’s sporting green two days after the fact with headlines such as “Jim Harbaugh says he’ll work on his handshakes”.
I think the bottom line is that papers and broadcasters will pick up any topic if they think it’ll garner listeners and readers. Such is definitely the case here. This whole handshake business is silliness, but sometimes readers want to read a bit of silliness.
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