We can’t stand players, coaches and fans who whine about opponents “running up the score.” Seriously … games have rules, and the idea is for everybody to put forth 100 percent effort within the context of those rules.
If you’re mad at another team for putting forth superior effort … try harder.
Anyway, courtesy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram comes perhaps the most ridiculous example of post-game whining we’ve ever seen. According to the paper, the parent of a student at Western Hills High School filed a formal bullying complaint against the coaching staff of North Texas’ Aledo High School last weekend.
Apparently Aledo’s 91-0 victory margin didn’t sit well with the losing team.
Wait … 91-0?
Ouch … that’s bad, but it’s not bullying. Especially considering Aledo’s coach Tim Buchanan started pulling his starters in the first quarter of the game (and threw the football only ten times).
“I have to address it,” Buchanan told the paper. “It’s not something you can laugh off or anything like that. What they said was that I should’ve told my players to ease up and not play so hard.”
Which he did, ironically, as part of an effort to keep Aledo from scoring 100 points …
Nonetheless public school bureaucrats in Texas are investigating the complaint – telling local TV station NBC 5 it will be taken ” just as seriously” as an allegation of actual bullying.
What a joke …
Coach Buchanon should leave his starters in and put up 200 points on this team next time. Bunch of sissies.
UPDATE: For those of you keeping score at home, Aledo’s romp doesn’t compare to Haven (Kansas) High School’s 256-0 victory over Sylvia High School in 1926 (the high school record for most points scored in a game). It also doesn’t come close to Georgia Tech’s 222-0 romp over Cumberland College in 1916 (the NCAA record for most points scored in a game).
16 comments
My only problem with “running up the score” is that when a team is far enough ahead of their opponents they should be substituting the players that don’t normally get much play time. Without play time those players can’t “step up” when the star players are knocked out of the game. Then let the second string squeeze blood from that turnip. Other than that run the score to where ever it goes. The Aledo coach should just tell them to pack sand, don’t they have to prove guilt, how can he prove innocence?
According to the article, that’s what the coach did. You can only do so much.
I agree, he did do all he could short of telling his kids to fall down. My comments were more general in nature. I remember watching several Florida games when Tebow was quarterback and they would get way ahead of an opponent and the coach left Tebow in rather than let the backup quarterback get in some game time.
All I’d ever expect a coach to do with a lead like that is to put in the second/third string players to get them some practice/field time, but honestly, even those people should put their best on the field. The only possible “bullying” I could even see here is if the winning team was showing unsportsmanlike conduct during or after the game. Scoring points for your team is not unsportsmanlike conduct, though. At all.
In my opinion, the parent is doing the bullying…not the winning coach. There is a 77 point mercy rule in SC (there used to be.) Is there not a mercy rule in Texas?
77 point mercy rule? Do teams 70 points down think they still have a chance?
Greatest “point deficit comeback” in College ball: 39 Unanswered Points
“…The 2006 Michigan State vs. Northwestern football game featured
the biggest comeback in NCAA history. The Spartans rallied to score 38
unanswered points to defeat the Wildcats 41–38 after falling behind 38–3 with 9:54 left in the 3rd quarter.”
Worst Ass whipping in College Football: 70-31
West Virginia versus Clempson “…the 70 points in the Orange Bowl is the most points ever scored by one team in a bowl game.
SCHSL (the South Carolina High School League) does not have a “mercy rule” in effect for football. They do have a “10 after 5 on a school night” rule for baseball.
Oh, West Virginia and FSU just both scored again…
Hey Col. Turdburglar – you forgot to mention 63-17 in scoring recap.
Doesn’t meet any of the criteria.
Yeah, in small football (kid ball, jr. high, high school) there should be a mercy rule. No point in running up a score, even if you do have the janitor in play. The other guys have given up. Say maybe 30 – 50 points, then done.
In college or pro, no such thing. Once you get to that level you should know better. That’s why I question pitting known sub par teams against powerhouses. But, you’d have to make special exceptions for Clemson(sorry, I’m a Clemson fan).
Don’t most high school programs have a “mercy rule”? I know when I played if a team was up by 40 points at half-time or at anytime in the 2nd half the game was over. Before the rule was put in place the coaches had more concerns about players taking cheap shots as in “we may lose the game, but you’re going to lose your starting quarterback”.
It’s a disservice to tell second and third stringers to go easy on the other team. They don’t get much playing time, and they want to score while their family and friends are watching.
A 91 point beat down is a character builder and life lesson teacher:
1. If you can take the beat down without whining or bitching it shows you aren’t a pussy even if you are physically frail and/or intellectually inferior.
2. You learn your place in life on that specific area and have to come to terms with it.
The lesson learned here is don’t waste your time doing something you suck at doing. Keep doing different things until one day you find something you don’t suck at doing.
If you can find anything you don’t suck at doing then settle in to the reality of being a janitor and be happy there are people that need janitors. Structure your life accordingly for that reality.
Many bleeding hearts hate football because it is a man’s sport and played for the most part in the old way that he used to get about in the world in general. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose-if you lose you better try hard so you aren’t disgraced. Sometimes it still isn’t enough and you are disgraced anyway.
This philosophy doesn’t jive well with the pansy mentality much of society has today where everyone’s a “winner” and we can’t have anyone feeling bad about anything.
By the way, if you’re a man grow a beard and piss off dykes.
A quote attributed the the Head Ball Coach years ago….”my job is to score as many points as I can. Your job is to stop me. Do not complain to me if you are not good at your job.” “nuf said
You have to know that something is critically wrong with public schools if Texans want to “ease off” a well defeated team. No bullying – plenty of sour grapes and sore losers.