Clubhouse Chatter: Should we keep the postgame handshake?

What our Sports staff has to say while waiting for the games to resume.

Maybe not forever. I think it's a good example for kids in youth sports to learn how to control their emotions and congratulate the opponent. But a one-year moratorium is probably appropriate, with reassessment at a later date.

- Mike McGraw

No. The players are breathing, spitting and perspiring all over each other for 60 or more minutes and then they can't shake hands afterward? Makes no sense to me.

- John Dietz

Picture a high school soccer game in which the two teams have spent 80 minutes going toe-to-toe and head-to-head against each other. Now they can't do a postgame handshake line because they might share germs? It's probably too late for those who got in the game. Might as well shake hands afterward, then go wash your hands. Trainers can add a jug of hand gel to their gear.

- Orrin Schwarz

I won't say forever. I hope there's a time that can be done again. I love the sportsmanship, of leaving everything you have on the court trying to beat your opponent and then respecting them with a handshake or quick hug afterward. Of course in these times none of that will be happening at least for a while, and I look forward to seeing the new way athletes and coaches come up with to display that sportsmanship and respect.

- John Lemon

No. We'll get through this. We'll high-five again, hug, fist bump. Young ballplayers will slap hands with the opponent postgame and repeat, "Good game, good game, good game ..." as they move down the line. And, man, don't take away my NHL-playoffs handshake line.

- Joe Aguilar

I don't believe the handshake line should go away forever. I am a big believer of the handshake as a form of respect and civility, and realistically our last pandemic of this nature occurred 100 years ago. A vaccine will be found, and we will carry on.

- Dave Oberhelman

No. Maybe for the immediate future but we have to at least have hope that at some point, some form of normalcy will return. he postgame handshake is a time-honored sports tradition, especially in youth and high school sports, and the thought of never seeing it again is incomprehensible.

- John Radtke

If common sense prevails, no one will be playing games until it's safe. And when that happens I don't think a postgame handshake can cause additional harm.

- Mike Smith