Any follower of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) knows that tonight was Ultimate Fight Night on Spike TV and as always the UFC brought the high quality entertainment that we love. Man, there were some crazy F-in fights! The first three fights all went to a decision and the fighters didn't once shy away from mixing it up so that made for some great action. Any of these fights could have been fight of the night. The main even was ended in the second round by submission and given the history of the two fighters, I wasn't really surprised. I won't bore you with any more fighting stuff though... for now.
One would think that a night of fights would be enough to keep me busy but lo and behold I made my way to the internet. I didn't get any further than my homepage of Yahoo! when I stumbled upon a very intriguing article. The story revolves around the 83-0 throttling one Hollywood, FL high school football team gave another. I've taken the liberty of posting the link to the article below.
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=989089
Rather than getting any kind of positive recognition, the winning team had to defend themselves. I found myself wondering why, so I read on. Apparently the winning team was "running up the score." Is it considered "running up the score" even if the starters were pulled after the half? Even if the other team threw two interceptioins that resulted in scores? Even if the clock ran throughout? According to parents and high school officials, it is. These days sportsmanship is a number one priority in highschool sports and that is a very understandable, legitimate piont. Why is it unsportsman-like if one team keeps scoring because the other can't stop them? They couldn't stop the starters so the starters were pulled, they couldnt stop their backups so the backups stopped passing the ball. At what point does the blame fall upon the team who just plain couldn't stop the opposition. I sat and thought about the significance of this article and the possible impact it may have. Will the winners of this game be afraid of success because being too good was frowned upon? Will the losers of this game think that an athletic official will step in and say enough is enough when they can't finish a tough school assignment? I do believe that there are situations that call for mercy rules such as a little league game, when kids may not totally understand all of the aspects of the game. That being said, this is a high school football team where competitiveness is key to winning, where young men are taught to accept and take on challenges. These kids are just a step away from the real world so they need to be shown that responsibility falls upon them in the face of adversity. There are no mercy rules when it comes to most things in this life.
Chances are I won't think about the article past tonight and in all honesty it doesn't mean that much but it made me think, and thats what Im hoping it will do for you. Also, be ready for that MIZZOU game comin up this weekend! Tigers are gonna beat them like some red headed step children so tune in for that! Until next time God Bless.
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