OT: Wow, what a rushing day for this football player

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:46 pm

This guy must feel like he's on cloud 9.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/h ... ml?cnn=yes

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:47 pm

Deleted due to long URL blowing the thread width. Sorry.

Take care,
PK

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:58 pm

High School Football - where sportsmanship comes to die.

FatPitcher · Post by **FatPitcher** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 10:02 pm

So sportsmanship is playing down to the level of your competition?

I played a lot of high school sports, little 2A school that got beat by over 100 in basketball against one of the top private schools in the country, but who cares? At least I got to play against great players that were going all out, not 4 quarters of half-ass basketball against their 3rd string.

Plus, accomplishments like that are cool if you're the guy doing them, and the other team's probably used to get creamed anyway. I know I didn't care if some other guy scored a ton of points on us. If he weren't doing it, some other guy on the team would be. The only people that seem to care are the coaches and the fans.

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:32 pm

Dave wrote:High School Football - where sportsmanship comes to die.

It's High School, it's not like they're 8yr olds. Teenagers in High School are competitive and plenty old enough to take to their lumps. We need to stop sheltering them, cause when they become part of the workforce in a few short years (right after 12th grade for some), it's a dog-eat-dog world and they're not going to get handled with kid gloves.

What an awesome performance by this kid and his offensive line though. He and his teammates will remember that game for the rest of their lives.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:50 pm

Agree completely, Jon, once at the high school varsity level. Life is about winning and losing, ups and downs, and the longer we shelter our supposed "young adults" from that reality, the lesser we become as a culture.

Jon, read this column by Ray McNulty of Scripps Howard chain. Sorry for the long paste, but the site requires free registration, which is nothing but an invitation for junk mail:

>>>>>

(SH) - This is what happens when we coddle our kids because we're more concerned with not damaging their self-esteem than teaching them to take on challenges, to fight through adversity, to compete.

This is what happens when we stop keeping score in youth sports, refuse to reward outstanding performance and give out trophies merely for participating, because we don't want our kids to think less of themselves and know the disappointment that accompanies defeat.

This is what happens when we tell our kids that winning isn't important, that losing is OK, that being pretty good is good enough.

We get soft. We lose our competitive edge.

We're no longer driven to be the best.

You want to know why America has become an also-ran in the world's athletic arena?

You want to know why we can't win Ryder Cups and Davis Cups and all the other trophies and medals we used to regularly take home from international competitions?

You want to know why we no longer dominate baseball, basketball and boxing the way we did for most of the 20th century?

There's your answer. We're not tough enough.

To anyone over the age of 40, those words probably sting a bit, because we grew up in a much different - and far better - time in America.

We grew up with a demand for excellence and a hatred for losing.

Vince Lombardi was a legend. Bobby Knight wasn't a punch line. The story of George Patton won an Academy Award for "Best Picture."

Sadly, Patton probably couldn't survive as a general in today's Army. Knight is considered a dinosaur. And we can only wonder how long Lombardi would've lasted trying to coach the self-absorbed, look-at-me millionaires in the modern NFL.

Which says more about us, as a people, than it does about them as leaders.

It says we've become too fat, too happy, too willing to accept less than our best effort.

It says we're a nation in decline.

Thing is, you can't hang all of this on parenting.

Or even Oprah.

We've been going the wrong way as a society for at least the past 10 years, steadily lowering our expectations in nearly every walk of life, whether it be academics or standards of behavior or athletics.

We celebrate mediocrity. We tolerate excuses.

We settle.

Especially when it comes to sports.

We have second-place teams getting wild cards. We have teams with .500 records - and sometimes worse - going to the playoffs. We have sports leagues expanding to the point where there aren't enough talented, top-shelf players to go around.6

In golf, we've got Tiger Woods, who is as fierce a competitor as anyone ever to pick up a club.

But that's about it.

Indeed, when Woods is leading a tournament on the weekend, everyone else runs and hides. Worse, they opt to play it safe, settle for a top-10 finish and protect their place on the money list, rather than take the risks necessary to win.

That wasn't always the case.

Just ask Jack Nicklaus, who faced much stiffer challenges from the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Billy Casper, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin and Greg Norman, all of whom refused to back down on the back nine on Sunday.

Everyone played to win, from the first tee to the 72nd green.

And they brought that same competitive fire to Ryder Cup play.

Now, despite being terrific golfers, our guys don't seem to have whatever intangible it takes to handle the pressures of Ryder Cup competition - which explains why the Europeans have won three in a row, routing the Americans in the last two by identical lopsided, 18-1/2 to 9-1/2 scores.

Similarly, we don't win the Davis Cup much anymore, either.

The U.S. and Australia used to play catch with the team-tennis trophy until the early 1980s. Since then, however, the Americans have won the championship only three times. And we haven't claimed the Cup since Pete Sampras won three matches in the 1995 final against Russia, which dumped Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers 3-1 in last weekend's semifinals.

Roddick and Blake are America's best tennis players, but they're a long way from McEnroe and Connors, Sampras and Agassi.

And we're no longer at the top of the women's game, which has been overrun by the Russians.

As for the other sports we're supposed to own - baseball, basketball and boxing - we've been coming up empty at those venues, too.

Remember when the heavyweight belt was the property of the U.S.A.? We haven't had a real champ since Evander Holyfield.

Remember when the "Dream Team" of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird rolled through the Olympics as if they were the Globetrotters?

Team USA hasn't won Olympic gold since 2000 in Sydney, stumbling to the bronze medal in Athens in 2004. And we haven't won a World Championship since 1994, taking the bronze in 1998, finishing sixth in 2002 and getting another bronze this summer.

And let's not forget about the U.S.'s failure to get to the medal round at the inaugural World Baseball Classic last spring.

True, the event was held at the worst possible time - during spring training - but we couldn't get past Canada, Korea or Mexico? On our home turf? In baseball?

Sound the alarm, folks: America has hit the iceberg.

We're going down.

We're not nearly as good as we used to be. We're not nearly as tough as we need to be. And it's our own fault.

This is what happens when we coddle our kids, when we stop keeping score, when we decide that being a winner no longer matters.

We get soft. We lower our expectations. We become losers.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

We're supposed to be better than this.

We're Americans.

We're supposed to work harder, be more driven, give whatever effort is necessary to win.

We're supposed to be the best.

That's what we were told growing up in the 1960s and '70s.

That's what we should be telling our kids now.

>>>>>>>

Take care,
PK

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:18 pm

Excellent read, thanks for pasting that to the thread.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 6:24 pm

Well, I'll just agree to disagree here.

Great accomplishment for the kid, nonetheless.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:12 pm

Great read PK. Thanks.

My Dad definitely was not my best friend growing up. He was my father and he had a job to raise me so I was ready when I became a man. A lot of people called my Dad an asshole the way he put pressure on me, the way he didn't tolerate when I didn't give it my all. He didn't care what other people thought.

I am 38, have a great job, two wonderful kids and have been married to a wonderful woman for 15 years. I owe a lot to my father.

My best friend now?

Yep, my Dad.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:23 pm

My father had a simple rule when it came to jobs, teams, competitions, etc.: You can't quit.

He didn't have to say, "Try your hardest." He didn't have to say, "You made a commitment to them." He didn't have to say, "They're paying you to do work." He never had to yell at me to push harder.

There may have been other advice or a proviso attached, but everything was summed up into three words:

YOU. CAN'T. QUIT.

I took those words to heart. I ran in at least 100 races during my competitive long-distance running career from 1979-86. I ran well in some, poorly in others. But the most proud aspect of my running "career" was that I finished every race. I never dropped out of a race, regardless of how bad I felt or how lousy I was running. Ever.

Those three magic words can be used in so many other situations. I remember my first job out of college, I was miserable. Making very little scratch, unhappy with the office environment, living away from home for the first time except for college, living away from my friends and family.

I remember suggesting on the phone to my old man that I was thinking of quitting my job and looking for something else. His reply was pretty simple, without a decibel of volume increase in his voice, and I think you cats can guess it:

"You can't quit until you find another job. How are you going to pay bills? How are you going to get food? We're not doing it for you. You're an adult now."

Again, the three key words: You can't quit.

Words I still live by, and words my old man still lives by. The best advice any father could give to his kids; advice that's being passed down to my kids.

Take care,
PK

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:59 pm

Again, the three key words: You can't quit.

Words I still live by, and words my old man still lives by. The best advice any father could give to his kids; advice that's being passed down to my kids.

I see nothing wrong with living by that mantra as it's a good one to live by, however, i don't see what it has to do with shoving your athletic superiority in the face of others less talented than you when there is nothing on the line. Continuing to try and break some meaningless high school record when you have already clearly won the game is not helping anyone. It ultimately doesn't help the guy who breaks the record, doesn't help the losing team, and doesn't help the winning team. It just delays an already boring game. Everyone knows the guy has more talent than the entire opposing team combined. Another 5 touchdowns isn't gonna prove anything. Why not give another guy a shot to shine as well? Maybe that scrub who never gets to play can get some time to give it his all in a real game. And if he doesn't score any touchdowns, so be it. No one will have to sit around for every touchdown celebration and extra point attempt while the clock is stopped.

And i definately do not buy the idea that the US isn't winning in certain sports as much as they used to because somehow the nation as a whole is not as tough. It's got a lot more to do with the fact that other countries are simply catching up as more and more people become interested in American sports such as basketball and baseball. It also has to do with the fact that we usually aren't sending our absolute best players and they often don't care as much about international play as others countries. You can't just create passion for something you were never told to care about as you were growing up.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:28 pm

King:

Do we know McCoy played the entire game? Nowhere in the story does it appear.

Second, the pressure on high school coaches in small communities like this one in West Virginia is arguably as enormous as that on coaches at major college programs and pro teams. I'm not kidding.

In small towns like these and in Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida and other football factory states, the town is defined by high school football. Winning isn't enough. The kids and coach are measured by how badly they beat people. If the coach does poorly or gets fired, he can't take his $4 million in paid and deferred salary and skip town. He usually has to stay in his town with his few thousand extra bucks he makes for coaching and face scorn and muttering from all corners while still teaching at the school.

I assume you're from L.A., a megapolis. Watch "All the Right Moves" with Tom Cruise or "Friday Night Lights." Neither are that far from reality at all in showing just how important a successful, winning high school football team is to so many small towns in America. It defines the town and its people.

When you go to my wife's hometown, a very small town near no major cities in the Mohawk Valley of New York, conversation after 10 minutes or sooner always will gravitate to the performance of the boys and girls high school sports teams for that season. The criticism can be more than vicious -- of the coaches and kids.

And my wife's alma mater doesn't even have a football program. In rural areas without big college or pro sports teams, high school sports are king, with every Friday night being the Super Bowl and every home field being as sacred as Lambeau.

It's not like L.A. where if your local high school team sucks, you can hang your hat on USC, UCLA or a pro team. In small town America, people's lives often revolve around their high school teams.

Take care,
PK

Programmed2Kill · Post by **Programmed2Kill** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:13 pm

He's no Noel Devine

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:15 pm

pk500 wrote:It's not like L.A. where if your local high school team sucks, you can hang your hat on USC, UCLA or a pro team. In small town America, people's lives often revolve around their high school teams.

Actually, since you haven't lived in LA in a while, it's gotten even worse than that. People don't even care about the pro teams. I'm still convinced LA has the worst fans in the history of sports. You should have seen all of the Clipper fans that all of the sudden appeared last year when the team actually made the playoffs. It was disgusting...and very satisfying for me as a Suns fan when the Suns eliminated both the Lakers and the Clippers. All of my front-running friends gave me a lot of crap before and during those series...but they all were quiet in the end. I hate LA fans.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:19 pm

PK, i understand that these small towns have great passion for their HS sports teams. I'm not even really upset about this kid rushing for a record. It's more the idea that this attitude of win at all costs and humiliate your opponent to no end while doing it is what kind of bugs me. I know some of these small towns will crucify a coach or player for not performing up to their ridiculous expectations, but that doesn't make it right, and it definately doesn't make our society somehow better because of it. There are positive and negative aspects to the attitudes of winning at all costs and completely eliminating the idea of competetion. It's was the article that got to me more than anything. Plus i don't even see how you can make a connection between what happened in that football game and the point the article was trying to make. Easing up on an opponent in a blowbout has been considered good sportsmanship since well before the "no competition among children" concept came into favor. Maybe i missed something and nobody was even trying to make that connection.

And DB, c'mon, how can you even mention the Clippers. The Clippers have never been LA's team. People will usually go to see a good team but to except anyone to go to the clippers over the last 20 years is asking a lot, especially when they aren't even the cities first team. People never went to Clippers gamesbefore because 1) The lakers have been here for much longer and have attempted to win and 2) Donald Sterling doesn't give a rats ass about the fans so the fans don't give a rats ass about his team. When he finally put a decent team out there people showed support, but still not as much as the Lakers. The Dodgers care about their fans and winning and have great attendance. People may show up late and leave ealry but that has a lot mroe to do with traffic than anything else. LA is just built different and there is a more relaxed attitude around here. There isn't any great public transportation to the games, getting home can take hours depending on how far you live from the stadium/arena. Even my beloved kings get great attendance despite missing the playoffs so often. Sorry this is so off topic but i can't help but come to the defense of LA fans when they are made fun of like that. If yuo want to see truly bad fans why not check out places like New Jersey or Florida, where selling out a playoff game is an achievement.

Zlax45 · Post by **Zlax45** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:45 pm

My problem is that the kid was allowed to rush for 10 TD's.....Let the backup and the third stringer get some PT!!!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 1:13 am

Zlax45 wrote:My problem is that the kid was allowed to rush for 10 TD's.....Let the backup and the third stringer get some PT!!!

I agree.

But what gets to me is this attitude that somehow a 42-0 loss is better than a 70-0 loss. It's not -- your team got its ass kicked either way, and sometimes that happens in life. You learn from it and try to improve next time.

It's better that kids start learning that at a varsity level in high school instead of sheltering them from reality.

Take care,
PK

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:26 am

Here's what Texas coach Mack Brown said about high school football coaches in Texas in an AP story about his cameo appearance in NBC's "Friday Night Lights:"

"I did think the part would help show the pressure on high school football coaches in our state. Everybody thinks the pressure's on college coaches. It's not. High school football coaches have every bit as much or more pressure in this state than college coaches, and they don't get paid near as much."

Take care,
PK

Zlax45 · Post by **Zlax45** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:20 am

pk500 wrote:
Zlax45 wrote:My problem is that the kid was allowed to rush for 10 TD's.....Let the backup and the third stringer get some PT!!!
I agree.

But what gets to me is this attitude that somehow a 42-0 loss is better than a 70-0 loss. It's not -- your team got its ass kicked either way, and sometimes that happens in life. You learn from it and try to improve next time.

It's better that kids start learning that at a varsity level in high school instead of sheltering them from reality.

Take care,
PK

In CT, A coach is suspended for one game if they beat the other team by more then 50 points. Which I think is wrong also.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:22 am

Zlax45 wrote:In CT, A coach is suspended for one game if they beat the other team by more then 50 points. Which I think is wrong also.

That's completely wrong. What if a team's second string is better than its opponents' starters? Is the second string not supposed to play hard? Are they not supposed to block and tackle to the best of their ability? If not, then why even bother play the game?

What a candy-ass society we have become in America.

Take care,
PK