Monday Morning Quarterback: Southwest and Northeast lost their cool, and then people done lost their minds; Surprises, Loughdmouthings
Friday night lights can also apparently blind some people - figuratively mostly - into hallucinations, like the reaction after Southwest and Northeast lost their composure – thanks in part to a lack of control by officials and perhaps coaches – and got into a 30-second altercation Friday night at Thompson Stadium.
I made the mistake of surfing around some social media on the topic.
Painful.
The level of uninformed, of knee-jerk, of hypocrisy, of misguidedness, of no interest in knowing stuff or looking it up, and of ignorance was depressing.
Sure, it’s the modus operandi for a staggering portion of our land 24/7, but one can always hope to be surprised.
As is usually the case when something bad happens, there’s the usual “Well, that’s Macon/Bibb” crap.
It’s an easy copout for people who don’t read and prefer blind piling on.
Savannah has these situations yearly. Yearly. Different schools, but yearly.
How many times in the last decade has a Bibb County public high school football or basketball game ended early because of excessive altercations? Less than with a few schools outside Bibb County that like looking down on Bibb County, whose neighbors have some basketball and cheerleader brawls, and some schedules have been changed because of incidents.
Make no mistake, the list off issues with Bibb County public schools and athletics is an extensive and unchanging one.
Holy cow. Let me sprinkle some Advil in my coffee. All over the place, from the top on down and sideways, the list is hefty. The rug and the broom stay busy amid a CYA and seminars-over-substance game plan.
The self-promotion and social media obsession is tiring, as is the constituency that thinks Twitter posts equals “doing a great job.”. A top-heavy group with too many unnecessary and overpaid jobs is a longstanding issue.
And not improving, but … oops, got a little sidetracked a little there.
But this wasn’t one of those situations.
Disclosure: I wasn’t there. Watched some of the video. Know the coaches. Have watched the players. And I embrace reality, logic, objectivity, and context.
Where to start?
For one, it’s the first time we had a game of two Bibb County programs with something to really brag about: trips to state championships only months apart within the last year. Something for the county to legitimately brag about.
Shoot, Bibb County can’t hardly win a region title in football or basketball, so one school going to a state football championship and another to a basketball state championship in the same year is staggering.
And both teams had players from both sports, so there was a little more swagger on both sides than usual.
Not an excuse.
For another, one team came in overconfident after a big win a week early, and was getting thumped by the better team (which it will avenge this winter) in an overly physical game. They expected to be competitive for four quarters and they were en route to perhaps a four-touchdown loss. They jawed angrily, the other team jawed confidently.
Not an excuse.
For another, it doesn’t appear the officials did a sufficient job in keeping the temperatures in check. And that’s simple (meaning “confusing and complicated” for some in our audience).
In such a heated game, after about the third or fourth skirmish, officials call time, pop into the huddles and stare the kids in the faces.
“The next time anybody on either team shows his (bleep), says too much, over-celebrates a mediocre play, next time we have to step in and break something up, somebody’s getting ejected. One from each team.
“Cross the line, and your night is over. Period.”
And go tell the coaches the exact same thing, that unless they like flying yellow cloth and dismissals. …
Coaches also need to pay more attention to the difference between intense and out of control, and remember that being under control is a good, winning way to operate.
Adults need to nip things in the bud, which takes competence, maturity, knowledge, and professionalism, all around. And no, kids aren’t excused from the ability or desire to competent or smart or in control.
Why the refs backed away from it when coaches started barking at each other is an issue, as is the targeting no-call on the play that finally sparked it.
For another, it was football. Between rivals. With teen agers. Emotions got out of hand, refs didn’t clamp down enough, and something happened.
To think it’s unusual or horrific as some seem to “think”, again, is ignorant and uninformed.
No, there’s nothing positive about what happened, but there are positives in the (hopeful) lessons taught and learned, by kids and adults. Growth. It’s a good thing.
OK, that’s all nice and clear and logical.
Speaking for the opposition of clear and logical are hundreds of Facebookers, posting on some teevee websites – often a daily refuge for the intellectually vacant – and assorted people’s posts.
So much reaction came from those who couldn’t know less about sports in general, and apparently not much about real life, and who sit in some quasi-religious overly judgmental and under-informed glass hut.
Makes you wonder if some are lacking regular human contact not on a teevee.
All the scolding from some adults is kinda funny, for a variety of reasons. One is the thought that most of those being so judgmental of kids might consider going back and joining those kids in a damn English class, because, man, it’s hard to take seriously those unable to type a coherent, remotely literate thought on a public forum. Want to be taken seriously? Take seriously how you word your points.
Another is that too many completely forgot about their teen age years, whether they were athletes or not. Things happen with teen agers, things that are predictable – to a point – and yet still not preventable.
Most of the posts are embarrassingly short-sighted and idiotic.
I know, I know, but one has the hope of surprise rather than the norm.
This wasn’t a Bibb County thing, no matter how morons love saying it’s a Bibb County or Macon thing. God, somebody dies, and poster children for birth control – and bots – race to proclaim Macon the murder capital, when it’s not. Not in Georgia, and not among the second-level cities.
The inference that this is normal, that there are always problems with fill-in-the-blank, is wrong.
Apologies for the impending pain from facts and reality for those apparently without access to Google, but “high school game fight” in Google gives us:
“Friday night football game at Taft High School called off after players get into brawl on field” in Cincinnati.
“Police: Altercation after high school football game under investigation” in Anderson, S.C.
“Vicksburg homecoming game called off due to fight” in Vicksburg, Miss.
“Man arrested after sideline fight at a high school football game” in Honolulu.
“Police confirm fights at football game in Summerville, no injuries” in Summerville, S.C.
“Calls for action following fights and gunfire after game at Southeast Raleigh High School” in Raleigh, N.C.
“Fights break out at two Columbus high school football games” with our neighbors to the west.
There was a shooting next to a stadium in Kentucky. The father and brother of Kansas State’s quarterback got into a fight – father and son – at the game in Dublin. Ireland, not Georgia.
And then, for the love of God and all who are touched, Legion Field in Birmingham hosted the third annual “Stop the Violence” Classic last week, and there were fights in the stands.
All of that is in the last week. The last week.
Get a grip, people, and quit taking joy in the negative. Give it a try. Being quiet a little more often wouldn’t hurt, nor would lying less about reality.
Head coaches Joseph Dupree and Jeremy Wiggins should consider talking, and agreeing to proactively suspend one or two players for a game, or more players for a half. Discipline – which always pays off - starts at home.
The GHSA and district will look into it, and probably have some different findings – equaling similar conclusions - based on different video and some different versions of what happened. And there are likely some things we don’t currently know.
Interviwes and clearer video and some interviews are likely to determine that punishments – routine and nothing huge - are warranted. And there should be punishments, no coddling. There’s enough of that going on.
Now, we move on. All of us. Much worse has happened, worse may happen. But it wasn’t anywhere near what was portrayed. Folks need to take the punishments and move on, and hopefully all involved learned something.
Hopefully, they’ll show us as much.
Surprises? Most definitely
Didn’t see Peach County handing Perry, nor Perry scoring only six points.
Did see Tattnall losing. The reality – apologies again – that the Trojans are in a struggling-to-be-.500-team mode right now. It won’t last forever.
Before it ended, Northeast leading Southwest by 22 wasn’t a surprise.
Certainly wasn’t surprised that Dodge County-Bleckley County was a roller coaster.
Was stunned that East Laurens’ home game with Dublin was called around lunch time. Really? Nobody on the eastside has access to weather apps?
Turns out it was nice golf weather for the evening. So, um, you know.
Am 50-50 on Jones County losing by four at Woodland-Stockbridge. The Greyhounds are in transition, and, frankly, there’s less proven talent on the roster this year than usual, which shows up more early in the season. Plus, Jones County won this meeting 49-19 last year, and had won six straight not-close games in a row.
But again, please remember this for football season: nobody gets a ring for August, September, or October.
Really. Those with internet access, look it up.
Loughdmouthings
From here on out, forever, when a team is considering new uniforms, they must be approved by parents sitting in the game operations center who can actually tell what the hell the number is on the dang uniform.
Period. …
I have less trouble with missed calls or “wrong” calls in a football game than I do bad game management. A 5-yard penalty should never take more than 30 seconds to discuss and mark off. And being off by a yard on marking off a penalty, well, some of us may have to start pointing out the fourth or fifth one in a game. …
There’s undoubtedly a reason – or excuse – why the Mercer’s game with UC-Davis was declared a no-contest with only 7:30 left in the game, after a lengthy lightning delay. So, ti didn’t happen. Stats are erased.
All that, of course, is silly. Tell the players that the bruises and exhaustion didn’t happen. And if it didn’t happen, give everybody their money back.
Count the game or call it a tie, and keep the stats. Will get some aspirin before checking the rule book. …
From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:
“In (the recent) preseason opener, Jaguars kicker Cam Little made a 70-yard field goal that would have been an NFL record had it come in a regular-season game.
“The Jags haven’t seen this much legwork since Urban Meyer skipped the team flight to hang out at a Columbus bar.”