Before I crawl back into my hole until the next conference re-alignment…

[Mitsurugi san]

I’m being 100% heartfelt and sincere (make fun or call me old if you want; I am 41 if you’re curious 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I talk a lot about how the legislation of contact out of the game is going to be the ruin of American football (and I mean every word of it), but I’ve come to realize this season (and not just during the show me bowl) that there’s something else our sport should be just as worried about…

…and that’s the fact that football is quickly becoming the most classless of ALL sports (not just American sports). This is not a Missouri problem, this is not a STL problem, this is not a private school problem; this is a football problem (and yes, I blame the NFL!)

The NFL’s rules and precedents always bleed down (always have); so when the NFL allows players to taunt, jaw, and even shove each other after nearly every play without any consequences, it’s naturally going to bleed down to the college and high school game.

Part of the reason I’ve long preferred college and high school football to the NFL is because it use to be the case that refs wouldn’t tolerate that crap at those levels; the flags came out quick. That’s not the case anymore, and yet we still act surprised when games get out of hand (or worse yet, we defend it! …with stupid crap like “let them have fun” 😡)

Baseball bores me to tears, but at least they govern themselves (that’s why you never even look at a home run for too long after hitting one); hockey’s the same way. For the NBA, it took players going after fans in the stands before they took action; now, the kind of taunting and jawing you see in football will get you a technical foul in basketball…

…and that’s what it’s going to take to save football from being the most classless of all sports; THROW THE FLAGS! No more taunting, jawing, and especially shoving after the play; flag’em early and demonstrate that their behavior hurts their team and gets them ejected after a couple of offenses.

Remember when a runner could get a first down and not feel the need to get up and give the first down signal in the face of the tackling defender?…

Or when a pass could simply fall incomplete without the defender giving the signal for incomplete pass on the face of the receiver?…

Or when an NFL defender could recover a fumble without the entire defense then running to the opposite end zone to do a choreographed dance number 😒

It all has consequences, and we are seeing those consequences play out before our eyes in real time. Ours is the sport (and high school is the level) where you see players outright attacking refs on the field when things don’t go their way!

I, at least, am not OK with this sport I love so much being the most classless of all sports (it didn’t use to be… and I hope and pray the culture changes, top to bottom 😢)

 

[bksfg4]

I’m being 100% heartfelt and sincere (make fun or call me old if you want; I am 41 if you’re curious 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I talk a lot about how the legislation of contact out of the game is going to be the ruin of American football (and I mean every word of it), but I’ve come to realize this season (and not just during the show me bowl) that there’s something else our sport should be just as worried about…

…and that’s the fact that football is quickly becoming the most classless of ALL sports (not just American sports). This is not a Missouri problem, this is not a STL problem, this is not a private school problem; this is a football problem (and yes, I blame the NFL!)

The NFL’s rules and precedents always bleed down (always have); so when the NFL allows players to taunt, jaw, and even shove each other after nearly every play without any consequences, it’s naturally going to bleed down to the college and high school game.

Part of the reason I’ve long preferred college and high school football to the NFL is because it use to be the case that refs wouldn’t tolerate that crap at those levels; the flags came out quick. That’s not the case anymore, and yet we still act surprised when games get out of hand (or worse yet, we defend it! …with stupid crap like “let them have fun” 😡)

Baseball bores me to tears, but at least they govern themselves (that’s why you never even look at a home run for too long after hitting one); hockey’s the same way. For the NBA, it took players going after fans in the stands before they took action; now, the kind of taunting and jawing you see in football will get you a technical foul in basketball…

…and that’s what it’s going to take to save football from being the most classless of all sports; THROW THE FLAGS! No more taunting, jawing, and especially shoving after the play; flag’em early and demonstrate that their behavior hurts their team and gets them ejected after a couple of offenses.

Remember when a runner could get a first down and not feel the need to get up and give the first down signal in the face of the tackling defender?…

Or when a pass could simply fall incomplete without the defender giving the signal for incomplete pass on the face of the receiver?…

Or when an NFL defender could recover a fumble without the entire defense then running to the opposite end zone to do a choreographed dance number 😒

It all has consequences, and we are seeing those consequences play out before our eyes in real time. Ours is the sport (and high school is the level) where you see players outright attacking refs on the field when things don’t go their way!

I, at least, am not OK with this sport I love so much being the most classless of all sports (it didn’t use to be… and I hope and pray the culture changes, top to bottom 😢)

I was playing at Helias in the early 2000s and had just fumbled a punt return that they recovered. I played corner and they tried to go deep on me the very next play. I picked the pass off on the sideline and with ball in hand gave the biggest first down symbol I could and handed the ball to the ref. It wasn’t in the other teams face and I was looking at our fans but every ref on the field simultaneously threw a flag for unsportsmanlike and took us back 15 yards. I was taken out and got my ass chewed by our head coach and d-coordinator. Our superintendent stopped me after the game and told me if I pulled that shit again he would make sure I didn’t start the next game and maybe not the rest of the year. He said act like you’ve been there before. You can be sure I did not pick up another unsportsmanlike penalty the rest of the year. I thought at the time it was a little harsh but in 20 short years we’ve gone from that to what we witness today. I couldn’t agree more. We need to bring back “act like you’ve been there before” and bring some class back to the gridiron.

 

[Veer2Eternity]

I was playing at Helias in the early 2000s and had just fumbled a punt return that they recovered. I played corner and they tried to go deep on me the very next play. I picked the pass off on the sideline and with ball in hand gave the biggest first down symbol I could and handed the ball to the ref. It wasn’t in the other teams face and I was looking at our fans but every ref on the field simultaneously threw a flag for unsportsmanlike and took us back 15 yards. I was taken out and got my ass chewed by our head coach and d-coordinator. Our superintendent stopped me after the game and told me if I pulled that shit again he would make sure I didn’t start the next game and maybe not the rest of the year. He said act like you’ve been there before. You can be sure I did not pick up another unsportsmanlike penalty the rest of the year. I thought at the time it was a little harsh but in 20 short years we’ve gone from that to what we witness today. I couldn’t agree more. We need to bring back “act like you’ve been there before” and bring some class back to the gridiron.

Most teams I watched this year didn't have any problems with that stuff.

 

[I2R I]

I’m being 100% heartfelt and sincere (make fun or call me old if you want; I am 41 if you’re curious 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I talk a lot about how the legislation of contact out of the game is going to be the ruin of American football (and I mean every word of it), but I’ve come to realize this season (and not just during the show me bowl) that there’s something else our sport should be just as worried about…

…and that’s the fact that football is quickly becoming the most classless of ALL sports (not just American sports). This is not a Missouri problem, this is not a STL problem, this is not a private school problem; this is a football problem (and yes, I blame the NFL!)

The NFL’s rules and precedents always bleed down (always have); so when the NFL allows players to taunt, jaw, and even shove each other after nearly every play without any consequences, it’s naturally going to bleed down to the college and high school game.

Part of the reason I’ve long preferred college and high school football to the NFL is because it use to be the case that refs wouldn’t tolerate that crap at those levels; the flags came out quick. That’s not the case anymore, and yet we still act surprised when games get out of hand (or worse yet, we defend it! …with stupid crap like “let them have fun” 😡)

Baseball bores me to tears, but at least they govern themselves (that’s why you never even look at a home run for too long after hitting one); hockey’s the same way. For the NBA, it took players going after fans in the stands before they took action; now, the kind of taunting and jawing you see in football will get you a technical foul in basketball…

…and that’s what it’s going to take to save football from being the most classless of all sports; THROW THE FLAGS! No more taunting, jawing, and especially shoving after the play; flag’em early and demonstrate that their behavior hurts their team and gets them ejected after a couple of offenses.

Remember when a runner could get a first down and not feel the need to get up and give the first down signal in the face of the tackling defender?…

Or when a pass could simply fall incomplete without the defender giving the signal for incomplete pass on the face of the receiver?…

Or when an NFL defender could recover a fumble without the entire defense then running to the opposite end zone to do a choreographed dance number 😒

It all has consequences, and we are seeing those consequences play out before our eyes in real time. Ours is the sport (and high school is the level) where you see players outright attacking refs on the field when things don’t go their way!

I, at least, am not OK with this sport I love so much being the most classless of all sports (it didn’t use to be… and I hope and pray the culture changes, top to bottom 😢)

Amen.

 

[Mitsurugi san]

'Deeply upset and embarrassed': EMU reviewing video of brawl after bowl game

An Eastern Michigan player took a swing at an opposing player as South Alabama was celebrating its 59-10 win Saturday night.

www.detroitnews.com

Bump
(“took a swing“ is an absurd under statement)

 

[Winston Bishop]

I am not disagreeing with any of the points made in this thread; I agree that a lot of rules and behavior bleed down from professional leagues into college and then HS. However, personally, I think that coaches share a lot of responsibility here. What the gentleman from Helias described is a culture that is still attainable, it just takes a SIGNIFICANT effort from an entire staff to maintain that expectation, correction, and discipline of necessary. I don’t think coaching staffs want to put that much time in to behavior expectations.

 

[Mitsurugi san]

…and they won’t until they’re given a better reason than “it’s the right thing”; the consequences for failing to do so have to affect teams’ abilities to compete or win before you’ll see real change (no tolerance penalty yardage, ejections, and suspensions…)

 

[Winston Bishop]

…and they won’t until they’re given a better reason than “it’s the right thing”; the consequences for failing to do so have to affect teams’ abilities to compete or win before you’ll see real change (no tolerance penalty yardage, ejections, and suspensions…)

I think that players need to see the intrinsic value of doing the right thing, *more* than they need to be taught “don’t do x/y/z because it results in a penalty”. It’s just way more work. And too many coaches don’t believe there is value in doing the right things, or that it adds wins, or else more of them would encourage, expect, and enforce it.

 

[Toots_mcgee]

Get off my lawn!!!!

 

[Toots_mcgee]

Mark Gastineau sack dance
The Washington Redskins Fun Bunch choreographed celebrations
Billy White Shoes Johnson TD dance
Kermit Washington almost killed a guy
Kareem Jabbar/Kent Benson wicked punch
The Malice in the Palace
1950s high school basketbrawls
Woody Hayes 1978 punching a player
Bobby Knight’s chair & phone
Reggie Jackson admiring his dingers
Prime Time started dancing at the 40 on his way to the end zone then he had a fist fight with Andre Rison
Jordan and Bird constant trash talk

Unsportsmanlike and sometimes bad behavior has been going on forever.
You’ll live thru it men.

I have personally been involved with bench clearing fights with punches being thrown in high school baseball and basketball and no one was kicked out in the 70s.

Civilization did not collapse. And we had some great stories to tell our kids about the good old days.

 

[JNsDaddyzDaddyIownU]

I’m being 100% heartfelt and sincere (make fun or call me old if you want; I am 41 if you’re curious 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I talk a lot about how the legislation of contact out of the game is going to be the ruin of American football (and I mean every word of it), but I’ve come to realize this season (and not just during the show me bowl) that there’s something else our sport should be just as worried about…

…and that’s the fact that football is quickly becoming the most classless of ALL sports (not just American sports). This is not a Missouri problem, this is not a STL problem, this is not a private school problem; this is a football problem (and yes, I blame the NFL!)

The NFL’s rules and precedents always bleed down (always have); so when the NFL allows players to taunt, jaw, and even shove each other after nearly every play without any consequences, it’s naturally going to bleed down to the college and high school game.

Part of the reason I’ve long preferred college and high school football to the NFL is because it use to be the case that refs wouldn’t tolerate that crap at those levels; the flags came out quick. That’s not the case anymore, and yet we still act surprised when games get out of hand (or worse yet, we defend it! …with stupid crap like “let them have fun” 😡)

Baseball bores me to tears, but at least they govern themselves (that’s why you never even look at a home run for too long after hitting one); hockey’s the same way. For the NBA, it took players going after fans in the stands before they took action; now, the kind of taunting and jawing you see in football will get you a technical foul in basketball…

…and that’s what it’s going to take to save football from being the most classless of all sports; THROW THE FLAGS! No more taunting, jawing, and especially shoving after the play; flag’em early and demonstrate that their behavior hurts their team and gets them ejected after a couple of offenses.

Remember when a runner could get a first down and not feel the need to get up and give the first down signal in the face of the tackling defender?…

Or when a pass could simply fall incomplete without the defender giving the signal for incomplete pass on the face of the receiver?…

Or when an NFL defender could recover a fumble without the entire defense then running to the opposite end zone to do a choreographed dance number 😒

It all has consequences, and we are seeing those consequences play out before our eyes in real time. Ours is the sport (and high school is the level) where you see players outright attacking refs on the field when things don’t go their way!

I, at least, am not OK with this sport I love so much being the most classless of all sports (it didn’t use to be… and I hope and pray the culture changes, top to bottom 😢)

You were not a fan of the 1970s Raiders, OBVIOUSLY.

 

[_slo_mo_]

Through week 16 taunting has been called 14 times this year, in 2012 it was called 6 times all year including the playoffs.

Also, in 2001 my grandpa told me he was done watching the NFL because Randy Moss disgusted him.

Some might look at this data and say our culture has been on a slow decline for a while. I just think that old, complaining dudes have been around forever. Don't expect it will ever stop. The trick is to realize when you have become one.

 

[Toots_mcgee]

Through week 16 taunting has been called 14 times this year, in 2012 it was called 6 times all year including the playoffs.

Also, in 2001 my grandpa told me he was done watching the NFL because Randy Moss disgusted him.

Some might look at this data and say our culture has been on a slow decline for a while. I just think that old, complaining dudes have been around forever. Don't expect it will ever stop. The trick is to realize when you have become one.

This is the best thing I have read in this space all year….

“I just think that old, complaining dudes have been around forever. Don't expect it will ever stop. The trick is to realize when you have become one.”

 

[revno]

Guilty..

 

[Mitsurugi san]

We all watched as the Class 6 title game in our own state gets called three minutes early because of the very thing we are talking about, and yet some people still don’t see it…

 

[cardsfan200306]

and at some point in our lives we all realize the old guys knew what the hell they were talking about and we were dumb AF

 

[Toots_mcgee]

So no games were stopped early in the 80’s?

And two teams in my area didn’t get in a massive brawl in the hand shake line in the early 90s.

There is nothing new under the scoreboard.

When you get old. Which I have. You forget stuff.

 

[LHSTiger81]

Well, we did have an opposing team member get an unsportsmanlike conduct flag at the coin flip. That was in the early 2010 or 2011 season, I believe.

 

[J. Kane]

So no games were stopped early in the 80’s?

And two teams in my area didn’t get in a massive brawl in the hand shake line in the early 90s.

There is nothing new under the scoreboard.

When you get old. Which I have. You forget stuff.

 

[_slo_mo_]

and at some point in our lives we all realize the old guys knew what the hell they were talking about and we were dumb AF

This is something you only say once you've become old and are now convinced that you know what you're talking about. It's bc of this mindset when we head to the polls in 2024 we're gonna be choosing between an 80-year-old and a 77-year-old, neither of whom can be relied upon to string together cogent thoughts at podium with the world watching. (Sorry wrong board.)

Also regarding the class 6 game, was that game called because the winning team was taunting or was it called because the losing team was moping around? Perhaps an argument can be made for both sides. But I don't seem to remember taunting being the issue. In fact if anything it was because the winning team was hitting too hard, maybe that was your point.

Sidenote, here's an excerpt from an article about the Colorado State and Wyoming rivalry:

"Bard recalls the 1978 Border War, when CSU coach Sark Arslanian had the Rams enter through the student section on the east side of Hughes Stadium just prior to the opening coin toss, leading to a dramatic brawl at midfield that required about 50 police officers to break up."

A brawl in 1978, between two heated rivals, perhaps this was when the game began to go down hill? If you read more about this game, you'll see it was called early as well.

Border War: CSU Rams forever Wyoming's No. 1 rival

Fort Collins and Laramie used to be similar towns, but the Border War enemies are now vastly different.

www.coloradoan.com

 

[JNsDaddyzDaddyIownU]

This is something you only say once you've become old and are now convinced that you know what you're talking about. It's bc of this mindset when we head to the polls in 2024 we're gonna be choosing between an 80-year-old and a 77-year-old, neither of whom can be relied upon to string together cogent thoughts at podium with the world watching. (Sorry wrong board.)

Also regarding the class 6 game, was that game called because the winning team was taunting or was it called because the losing team was moping around? Perhaps an argument can be made for both sides. But I don't seem to remember taunting being the issue. In fact if anything it was because the winning team was hitting too hard, maybe that was your point.

Sidenote, here's an excerpt from an article about the Colorado State and Wyoming rivalry:

"Bard recalls the 1978 Border War, when CSU coach Sark Arslanian had the Rams enter through the student section on the east side of Hughes Stadium just prior to the opening coin toss, leading to a dramatic brawl at midfield that required about 50 police officers to break up."

A brawl in 1978, between two heated rivals, perhaps this was when the game began to go down hill? If you read more about this game, you'll see it was called early as well.

Border War: CSU Rams forever Wyoming's No. 1 rival

Fort Collins and Laramie used to be similar towns, but the Border War enemies are now vastly different.

www.coloradoan.com

CBC had no problem taunting the past two years. Paybacks are a beattch

 

[I2R I]

Just let us deflect from bad behavior.
It has always been that way.
We won't set a better example or ever demand better.
If you do, it's because you are old.
Got It!!

 

[Mitsurugi san]

NMSU player suspended indefinitely after punching opponent in the face - Yahoo Sports

Robert Carpenter made a very big mistake in a game against Liberty.

www.yahoo.com

See, basketball doesn’t put up with this kind of crap (wish football wouldn’t)…

…and I’m not even a basketball guy, I just wish some measure of class mattered in the sport of football (because clearly it doesn’t matter enough to deal with it as swiftly and decisively as they do in other sports 🤷🏻‍♂️)

 

[_slo_mo_]

What are you doing out of your hole again

 

[J. Kane]

What are you doing out of your hole again

 

[Veer2Eternity]

What an incredible Cinderella story. This unknown comes outta nowhere to lead the pack at Augusta. He’s at the final hole. He’s about 455 yards away, he’s gonna hit about a two iron, I think … (Carl reels back and swats the head off of a mum. Petals fly like confetti) Boy, he got all of that. The crowd is standing on its feet here at Augusta. The normally reserved Augusta crowd is going wild … (he pauses as he notices some golfers coming) for this young Cinderella who’s come out of nowhere. He’s got about 350 yards left. He’s going to hit about a five iron, it looks like, don’t you think? (Carl pulls the grass whip back to demolish the next mum) He’s got a beautiful backswing … That’s … Oh! He got all of that one! He’s gotta be pleased with that. The crowd is just on its feet here. He’s a Cinderella boy, tears in his eyes, I guess, as he lines up this last shot. And he’s got about 195 yards left, and he’s got a, it looks like he’s got about an eight iron. This crowd has gone deadly silent. Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former greenskeeper, now about to become the Masters champion. (Carl reels back one last time and — Swat! — blasts the third mum to smithereens) It looks like a mirac . . . It’s in the hole! IT’S IN THE HOLE!!!