8-year-old's interception earns team $500 fine, coach suspen

[The Annoyed Man]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/8-year- ... -suspended
8-year-old's interception earns team $500 fine, coach suspended

A youth football team in Georgia was winning a game 32-0 when 8-year-old Elijah Burrell intercepted a pass. He then returned the pick for a touchdown – his first ever – giving Elijah and the Lawrenceville Black Knights a 38-0 lead.

Unfortunately, the rules of the league state that no team can exceed 33-points in "the spirit of the mercy" rule.

The penalty for violating the rule? A $500 fine for the team, and a one-week suspension for the coach.

Whoever came up with the idea that winning is bad if it makes the losers feel bad is absolutely the dumbest person ever conceived and deserves to drown in a lake of rotting sewage. Eternally.

What lesson did this little kid learn? Did he learn to be merciful the next time? No. He learned not to try too hard so that his friends won't hate him for getting everyone into trouble. He learned that his coach is bad for teaching him to play well. He learned that success is punishable, and failure costs nothing. He learned that failure is better than making the other person feel bad. He learned every kind of bad and stupid thing EXCEPT how to succeed in life.

Did this happen in San Francisco? Nope. It happened in Georgia. We are flippin' doomed as a nation.

[philip964]

Usually the game ends when a certain point difference is reached.

A mercy rule most of us agree is appropriate.

This sounds like a way to shrink a league or reduce it's skill level pretty quick.

[MechAg94]

Reading the story, it seemed the other team had quit trying.

[Teamless]

my nephew plays on a Houston area league, and a similar rule is there.
in his league, is a 39 point differential
if the 39 points are exceeded, it is $100 fine (I believe) as well as a 1 game coach suspension.

So it is not unusual.

[ELB]

Completely nuts. A mercy rule is one thing, like first team to break through 33 point lead wins, but a actual penalty for good play is beyond contempt.

Perhaps the primary problem was signing up in a league like that in the first place.

Good lesson for the kid tho, he's learning early not to have too much faith that governing organizations have any sense of judgment or perspective at all.

I once played in a high school football game where we got bombed 65 to 10, I think. We were a very small country school, and I have no idea why we played against a student big city high school with hundreds, maybe a couple thousand students -- we did not normally play them in any sport, I have no idea how that came about. In any case while it wasn't exactly a great time, we did live through the experience.

[Jim Beaux]

Our great American can do spirit is gone. The ankle biters have become too heavy for us to carry.

BTW - I couldnt contain myself if a man asked for money as a penalty for my son over achieving and making others feel inferior.

[n5wd]

Geeezzzeeee... I hope none of those poor kids watched the TCU vs Texas Tech game today. It would send their little minds into meltdown. (TCU won 82-27 today at home. PD is still working traffic some 6 hours after the game! )

Agreed: the problem is someone signing up their kid in a league like thst. Mercy rules are completely appropriate, but you fine and suspend someone for doing wrong, seriously wrong, not doing what the game is all about in the first place!

[Blindref757]

If I were a coach in this league and was within 6 points of violation (since football is unpredictable as to when someone might intercept a pass or pick up a fumble), I would simply not put my defense on the field...or just line them up on the sideline and let the other team score against air! That will make them feel good right? They could make the fine "1 Billion Dollars" because I wouldn't pay it if it were $1. They would just have to find a new coach and a kid to replace mine on the team. It is like common sense is forever gone with all of this zero-tolerance junk. Just end the game and pass out the snacks!!!

I referee HS football and in our game Friday night, the score was 32-0 at halftime. The winning team had passed the ball 3 times and they ran the ball down to the 21 yard line with about 14 seconds on the clock prior to half. However, the home clock operator suddenly "failed" to shut down the clock and it ran down to 1.9 before we could get it stopped. I calmly went to the head coach of the winning team and asked him if he wanted me to put 14 seconds back on the clock. He said, "No...I've got just enough time to kick a field goal." The final score was 32-6 because the winning coach was classy enough to keep running dive plays all night long, put his 2nd string in the whole 2nd half, and smart enough to know that at this time of year, your starters can benefit from a short game (recovery and no injuries). It was very refreshing to see a team show mercy the right way...not by giving up, but by doing things that kept the game from getting out of hand.

People have to start standing up for what is right...if you want to wussify your kids, put them in this type of league. If you have guiding principles and you don't want organizations like Boy Scouts of America to collect your money for violating your trust (and potentially your son), then vote with your pocketbook and explain it to your kids. They may be disappointed at first, but they will learn that having a backbone is beneficial in life!

[Teamless]

as far as the coach actually paying the fine, no.
it is the team that is fined, but the coach is the one who is suspended.

I have seen it many times where a score would put you over the limit, and the coaches just tell the kids, never intercept or pick up a fumble, and I have seen it quite the opposite, where if the offense has the chance to go over the limit, they will run the other way and give a safety to the opposing team.

Silly, yes, but if you want your kid to play organized football, these are the rules (and many others which are crazy!)

[mamabearCali]

If they are going to gave a mercy rule (which is perfectly fine)....then play needs to stop and the game is over. There....problem fixed....no need for fines and suspensions.

[jimlongley]

In my stepson's youth flag football league the slaughter rule applied to all regular season games, but there was no practical way to put in the "second string" because most of the teams consisted of 11 to 13 kids and some of the coaches had "drafted" well enough that even the bench warmers were better players than a lot of the other players in the league. One season our coach, who had been sizing up players for a couple of seasons before, chose so well that we went undefeated for the whole season, including a championship that was a slaughter too. The following season the league changed the recruiting and drafting rules so that that was less likely to happen.

Our rule just ended the game if the score differential got too high, but our coach liked to have the kids out there playing, so a couple of times when our team had marched down the field, they would suddenly turn incompetent and somehow turn the ball over. Once or twice the opposing team actually managed to score after such a play, but not often, and the kids had the satisfaction of playing a full game and at least having the illusion of threatening a powerhouse team. Once our quarterback threw a pass to an opposing player, who immediately turned the wrong direction and scored for us, ending the game.

We also "loaned" players to the other teams a few times, and those actually turned into interesting games, but somewhere in the rules there was a condition that games played with walk on players did not count toward league status.

I am partially in favor of such rules, it's just as bad a lesson to teach kids that if they are losing too badly someone will step in and stop it as allowing one team to totally stomp another out of existence, but see fines and suspensions as being a little over the edge. Why no include fines and suspensions for coaches who allow their teams to get slaughtered?

[Keith B]

The rule should be once the score exceeds a 33 point spread it is ended. The rule is written poorly IMO.

[The Annoyed Man]

Geeezzzeeee... I hope none of those poor kids watched the TCU vs Texas Tech game today. It would send their little minds into meltdown. (TCU won 82-27 today at home. PD is still working traffic some 6 hours after the game! )

Agreed: the problem is someone signing up their kid in a league like thst. Mercy rules are completely appropriate, but you fine and suspend someone for doing wrong, seriously wrong, not doing what the game is all about in the first place!

I don't have a problem with a "mercy rule" that says that when a spread of X has been exceeded, the game is over.......because in real life (not just football), when the spread has exceeded a certain amount the intelligent person makes a "fish or cut bait" decision. However, it is the loser making that decision, not the winner. And even in professional or college sports, when the deficit grows too large to be impossible to overcome, both teams will begin sending in their 2nd string players to give them some experience......so the wuppin becomes a learning opportunity.

Tech learned that losing hurts, and that losing big hurts a lot. That's a valuable lesson too. It teaches you that either:

1. you need to apply yourself harder and get more disciplined, or
2. perhaps you're not cut out for football and should find some other activity at which you have a prayer of doing well.

In a properly structured mercy rule, the game ends automatically when the spread exceeds a certain number. If you do not have a mandatory ending of the game, and you include fines and suspensions for surpassing the spread, then what you teach the winning players is that winning by too much is bad; that they should be careful not to give it their best effort.

This is an insidious lesson that is and has been demonstrably detrimental to the success of our society and culture. Is there any other country besides the U.S. that fines teams, suspends coaches, and reprimands players for being TOO successful? This is all progressivist crap.

[Abraham]

"This is all progressivist crap."

I completely agree.

[joe817]

The rule should be once the score exceeds a 33 point spread it is ended. The rule is written poorly IMO.