On a cold Saturday afternoon, in front of one of the season’s largest crowds at Kelly/Shorts Stadium, four seniors stood at the 50-yard line and botched the easiest play of their final game against the Chippewa’s biggest rival, Western Michigan University.

All they had to do was participate in one of the oldest traditions in college football – the handshake between opponents. Instead, the seniors turned their backs on Western’s captains and headed for the sidelines.

If they were trying to make a statement, it’s a shame they didn’t make it with their play after the coin toss. The Chippewas went on to get dismantled by the Broncos, 32-20. Worse yet, our football team gave our biggest rival every reason to gloat from the sidelines after we were forced to hand over the Victory Cannon Trophy, the spoils of this annual battle that was first fought in 1905.

Our senior captains – Justin Cherocci, Titus Davis, Andy Phillips and Leterrius Walton – underperformed on the field that day in the worst possible way – they represented CMU poorly.

The pregame handshake is a tradition unlike any other in sports. Little Leaguers and children who play Pop Warner football are taught about good sportsmanship from the day they put on a uniform.

It is a pregame ceremony acted out for more than a hundred years in college and professional athletics.

The Mid-American Conference issued a public scolding of head coach Dan Enos’ program. Though no regular season games remained on the schedule, Enos announced the four would no longer be allowed to serve as captains.

This bad decision by four seniors was a final embarrassing display from a team plagued by poor judgment all season long. With no games left this regular season, it may have been difficult to find a suitable punishment. This solution appears to be the bare minimum.

Some fans and supporters have suggested the display was a reaction to a controversy surrounding a T-shirt created by a WMU student that depicted a Chippewa Indian in an unflattering way. If that was the reason – which we don’t think it was –our captains certainly did not make their point.

Enos has been defensive, sometimes combative, with the media as the Chippewas battled off-the-field issues week after week.

Numerous times this season, we have heard CMU football players talk about how playing college football is a privilege not to be taken for granted.

We hold student athletes to a high standard. They have one crucially important job: to represent us well. This is the reason we dish out $18.5 million per year to fund the department.

This privilege was abused and disrespected by Cherocci, Davis, Walton and Phillips.

The handshake refusal makes us, CMU, look bad to everyone around the MAC and even worse, to the players, fans and coaches whose respect and fear we covet the most.

Though we were blown out in our home stadium against our biggest rival, we lost something even more important than a football game.

We lost our dignity as a program.

Those four seniors will graduate next May. This experience will fade into their memories. But we, the campus community, will not forget.

Because of that group’s bad decision, the attention of the MAC football critics is now focused squarely on us.

All we can hope for is that next year, we have a group of captains that represent us in the best light possible.