So earlier I got into a debate with a few ppl on Facebook. They were saying how disrespectful it was to take pieces of the bushes after the win, how it was "destroying property", and how it showed a lack of class and home training by our players. I totally disagreed but do any of you feel it was disrespectful?
The first time I saw Tech players taking pieces of hedges was in the Atlanta Journal in 1984, after the big, unexpected win in Athens. It think it was at that game the tradition started. Tech as a program had been in a tailspin for years and was trying to recover. The Yellow Jackets hadn't beaten UGA in seven years and hadn't won in Athens in at least 10. And Tech was a huge underdog that year, so people were very happy. At the time, I felt better than a kid at Christmas after that win, it was so special... especially being at a high school overrun with UGA fans and two of the faculty being former UGA players (and also the Bulldogs as our school mascot!).
In the beginning, Tech players took only small twigs as mementos... It wasn't anything malicious, just a memory of having come back as a program and winning a game they shouldn't have won. It was really cool and had a lot of symbolism in the papers the next morning. I must say, I thought it was a bit UGA-like this year to take gobs of the shrubs and put it in their mouths. It may have been a reaction to UGA players eating our turf at Grant Field, or perhaps a reaction to Sanford Stadium security taking away the pieces of the hedges from our players as they left the field in 2014. Excellent win, but hated to see our players look like UGA guys there at the end.
I would think you would.