They waved the white towel

This one comes from an article in The Athletic. Reporters Saad Yousuf and Josh Kendall were summarizing the Atlanta Falcons loss to the Carolina Panthers yesterday: “Cousins played the final two drives and completed five of his seven pass attempts for 29 yards. The Falcons’ offense got near midfield on his first possession but couldn’t cross into Panthers territory as a Cousins pass on fourth-and-4 fell incomplete. His second possession under center was just seven handoffs as Atlanta waved the white towel.”

This is a nice congruent conflation of “waving the white flag” and “throwing in the towel”, both meaning to admit defeat. I suppose a football player that was getting beaten so badly so could wave a white towel that was tucked into their pants but I’ve never seen it. Interestingly, in hockey, “waving the white towel refers to a tradition in hockey, that started when Vancouver Canucks coach Roger Neilson used a white towel on a hockey stick in a mock surrender to protest officiating during the 1982 playoffs. The incident led to the fans’ “Towel Power,” where they waved white towels to support the team, a tradition that became popular across the NHL and other sports.  

A big high five to Mike Browning for spotting this gem and sending it in!