Something I have never been able to understand is the need for men to touch each others butts. Outside of a sporting arena, this would be totally unacceptable behaviour, but, for some reason it is OK to touch another guy's ass while playing sports.
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| Not a good time to play grabass |
In light of the accusations levelled at Jerry Sandusky, and his recent re-arrest over further allegations of child abuse, many sports authorities are frowning on the behaviour of butt patting on the field of play, and certainly in the shower afterwards.
I spoke with Jack Stropp, ex-writer for this blog, and ex-football player about 'Patting Ass' in an athletic environment. "In my football playing days, it was a way to say 'Well Done' or 'Nice Play' or even 'Too Bad'. When you wear a helmet and a gum shield in a noisy arena, then you can't always communicate verbally. There was certainly no sexual overtone when I did it, it's just like a pat on the back.", Jack told me.
Nobody can narrow it down to when sportsmen started patting each other on the butt, however I know for a fact that it was not common practice during Roman times.
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| "Just try and grab my Gluteus Maximus" |
There is a theory that butt patting began quite accidentally when a coach tried to protect his star quarterback from the embarrassing situation of walking on the field with a 'TP tail'. He reached out to grab the offending article and made contact with the buttocks. The QB turned around as if to say "WTF are you doing?" to which coach quickly said "Good luck out there."
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| The origins of the butt pat? |
However the butt pat maneuver began, it has been adopted by coaches as a way for them to encourage their players as well as to congratulate and commiserate.
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| A cross sport asspat contest |
Even the soccer players are getting involved...
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| An open invitation |
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| The DoublePat |
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| The Reverse Pat |
I am glad to say that the butt pat is no longer limited to just men. As the number of sports adopting the butt pat increases, so does the range of people using it. The last Olympic Games saw the butt pat enter into modern 'sports' like beach volleyball.
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| Great spike, Sandra. Whoa, nice ass too. |
Even though the butt pat is a symbol of camaraderie and team building, it could also be a symbol of perverts taking advantage of their position of trust and responsibility, and we need to be alert to situations when such physical contact is unwanted or inappropriate. Just like people didn't at Penn State.
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