Dawg Sports, a Georgia Bulldogs community

I arrived home soaked to the skin at 1:30 a.m. and I haven't turned on a television yet, but it is safe to suppose that ESPN is covering Tim Tebow's concussion like it was Michael Jordan's hall of fame induction. I'm sure you've heard about it and I'm sure you'll join me in hoping that the young man makes a complete recovery on November 1. In the meantime, though, the legend of Tebow is being fueled by this event (which distinguishes it not at all from every other event in Tebow's life), and I have been reminded of a far more serious injury to Georgia's Richard Vonalbade Gammon in 1897. Gammon suffered what proved to be fatal injuries in a game against Virginia in the era before the forward pass was legalized. Contemporary accounts of the contest were harrowing in their description of his injuries, which led not just to his death but also very nearly to the outlawing of the gridiron game in the Peach State. Legend holds that Gammon was carried from the field while uttering these words: "A Georgia man never quits!" This is all very stirring and inspiring, but there's no way it's true. Reports published at the time indicate pretty clearly that Gammon could not speak in the immediate aftermath of his injuries and that he went downhill quickly after that. He didn't utter a word. I was reminded of Von Gammon's apocryphal words when I read this load of crap, straight from the mouth of Urban Meyer: "He asked me ’Did I hold onto the ball?' I told him he did and he winked at me and said ’It’s great to be a Gator."’ Oh, no, he di'n't! If Tebow was dealt a blow that left him with a concussion requiring him to be carted off the field, whisked away in an ambulance, and held overnight for observation, he wasn't engaging in any such conversations with his coach. I hope Tebow recovers because I'm not so mercenary in my fandom that I would ever wish for an 18-to-22-year-old college student to suffer an illness or an injury, but, if you believe he was winking and saying how great it was to be a Gator after getting his bell rung, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. That's make-believe garbage that not even a Florida SID could buy. Go 'Dawgs!