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A 10-year study released today has found that athletes slap each other’s butts less in the post-game shower than they do during games. The study was conducted jointly by the four major professional leagues.

The results showed that while butt slapping decreases in post-game showers, as expected, it does so only moderately. “If the average professional player gets his butt slapped by a teammate once a game,” says lead researcher Byron Cope, “we found that he gets his butt slapped only slightly less – about five out of every eight times – by a teammate in the post-game shower.”

Butt slapping has long existed in sports as a way teammates and coaches show appreciation to one another on the field – a tap on the butt can mean anything from “nice tackle” or “great pass” to something more consoling like “we’ll get ‘em next time.”

Why the butt slapping continues off the field of play and in the post-game shower is less clear. “These guys just seem to really like slapping each other’s butts,” Cope said.

The rate of slapping from on the playing surface to the shower decreased the least in the NHL, the study found. “They slap each other’s behinds less while playing then they do in the other leagues – about three out of every four games a player gets a tap,” Cope said. “But they receive about the average amout of butt slapping in the shower as is the average in Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL.”

Another interesting finding on the NHL is that the customary post-goal celebration – where the goal scorer’s teammates celebrate in a crowd around the player in the corner – does not altogether cease in the shower. “It decreases, but it still happens,” Cope said. “Part of it comes from hockey’s long tradition of hazing rookie players, I think."

The study found that coaches don’t stop their butt slapping once the game is over, either. “Coaches are serial butt slappers,” Cope said. “Think about it – in baseball the give a tap after a home run, a sacrifice fly, a strikeout, anything. It’s the same in football and basketball. And it doesn’t end in the shower.”

Cope said a National League manager (all names were withheld from the study at the leagues’ request) waits outside his team’s shower and slaps each player’s naked butt as they walk past him on exiting the shower.

“He tells them ‘Nice job!’ or ‘Better luck next time’ when he slaps their butts,” Cope said. “None of the player’s seem to have a problem with it. Many gave him a return slap to his cheeks.”