WATCH: Georgia visits Children's Healthcare of Atlanta hospital
ATLANTA — Day two of Georgia’s bowl week in the Peach State’s capital city is all but in the books. The defensive Dawgs took the podium to speak to media on hand. Tonight’s activities included a joint team visit to the Ebenzer Baptist Church and a basketball shootout challenge. Of course there was practice too. But the most heart warming thing that Georgia players will do during their entire time in Atlanta came during the day as the team visited kids at the Scottish Rite Hospital under the umbrella of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Georgia players and coaches met with patients and their families, signed memorabilia and simply took time out of their Playoff preparation to enrich themselves with something more important that football.
“I think it’s part of the bowl process, and the merger is unique between CFP, the playoff games and the bowl games, because the bowl games have their traditions, have their beliefs, have their sponsors, and those traditions are very important to the bowls,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said earlier in the week when asked about the outside activities as a part of the bowl process. “I mean, any of the playoff games that you can play in, even though they’re rotating, they have bowl traditions. I went to those bowl games as a coach or a player a long time ago, and they started those traditions. So those traditions are important to them. The playoff and the meaning of the game is important to them too, but you have to balance the two.”
“You’ve got to make sure your players understand this is my off time and they have activities that are scheduled, but we also are here for a purpose, and it’s a business trip. It’s not just a joy trip. The balance of those two is important. I look forward to the activities. We had them last year at the Orange Bowl. It’s important to get your mind off of the game at times, and those activities allow you to do that.”
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Needless to say, Tuesday’s activity would be one that Smart certainly doesn’t mind. It’s the ones like the trivia challenges, which took place on Monday, and go-karting, which Georgia and Ohio State will do on Wednesday night, that he wants to be sure don’t take away from his team’s attention.
“I would say it’s not a distraction. It’s kind of the opposite,” Georgia safety Christopher Smith said. “It kind of brings you more of a connection with your teammates and being able to spend that time and having fun activities you aren’t usually be able to do.”
Kickoff time between the Bulldogs and Buckeyes is set for 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN with Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe on the call live from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and a spot in the National Championship Game on the line.
