Non ci sono solo le regole scritte

Se uno si commuove anche a leggere una storia facile e ruffiana di correttezza nello sport settant’anni fa, vuol dire che stiamo messi male.

In November 1940, Cornell was cruising through a second year at the top of college football, undefeated in 18 straight games. When the Big Red went to New Hampshire to play hapless Dartmouth, it was hardly expected to be a contest. But the game, played in snow flurries on a slushy field, proved to be a shocker. Going into the last minute of the game, Dartmouth was up, 3-0. Cornell finally put together a drive to the goal line and on the final play of the game scored the winning touchdown. There was just one problem: Referee Red Friesell had lost track of how many snaps Cornell had taken inside the 10-yard line. The touchdown was scored on a fifth down.Dartmouth protested, but the game was over. Cornell could have adopted the modern moral standard that anything the ref allows is allowed. Instead, when the game films showed conclusively that Cornell had won on an extra, illegal snap, the players, coach, athletic director and university president agreed to forfeit the game and did so graciously. Coach Carl Snavely sent a telegram to Hanover, N.H., saying that Cornell “without reservation concede[s] the victory to Dartmouth with hearty congratulations to you and a gallant Dartmouth team.” Dartmouth wired back that it accepted the victory and saluted its “honorable and honored opponent.” As Arthur Daley wrote in the New York Times that week: “Cornell had the sportsmanship to yield a success it felt it had not rightfully earned.”

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