Recently Covenant High School, a Christian school in Dallas, defeated Dallas Academy by a 100-0 score. They had a comfortable 59-0 halftime lead. When is enough enough?

Former Florida coach Steve Spurrier, now the head man at the University of South Carolina, has been on both sides of this equation. While at Florida, his Gators routinely ran the score up against lesser opponents. "It's not our job to keep the score down; it's theirs," explained the ole ball coach.

This past year Spurrier was on the receiving end of a whipping at the hands of his old team as Florida Coach Urban Meyer. Meyer, who is almost as arrogant as Spurrier, put the petal to the metal and clobbered the Gamecocks. To his credit, Spurrier had nothing to say about the lopsided thumping, but it begs the question of what's the moral thing to do?

After walloping their opponent by a 100-0 score, the coach of the Dallas High School girl's basketball team got canned. In firing the coach, his boss called the score run-up shameful. Perhaps it's more shameful that he hired this coach, told him to win, and then fired him for doing just that.

It raises several questions about the morality of such humiliation. First, you want your team to do the best they can. Even when the scrubs are in, you want them to excel as well. Do you tell your girls to go out there and lie down and let the other team have its way with you? Wouldn't that be more humiliating for the losers? If you're going to call off the dogs, at least do it by rule.

I do play by play broadcasting in Pop Warner and we have a mercy rule that kicks in that limits a team from running up the score. I won't bore you with details but it includes a "running clock" that can't be stopped and requires a team to confine its rushing game between the tackles and no passing is allowed so that the other kids can stack the defense and keep the score down. But that's Pop Warner and those are things that are done by rule.

Coach Spurrier was once asked why he doesn't play all of his players at South Carolina. His answer: "This ain't Pop Warner! We put the best team on the field to help us win." Different league… different rules.

So what should a coach facing a moral dilemma do? Forfeit? Take his or her team off the court or field? Have a pity party for the other team and let them back in the game?

A more important field of exploration might be to ask a question about why would anyone even want to be a coach? My son Cory coaches girl's weightlifting and he's a great mentor who has been known to even reach out to the other team's weightlifters and assist them with their techniques. He is enthusiastic in his efforts but opposing coaches, if they didn't know him better, might be offended that he would talk to their lifters.

And what about the Louisville, Ky. coach who is on trial for the death of one of his football players. David Jason Stinson is a deacon in his church and a respected high school football coach that now faces charges for the unfortunate death of one of his players. The prosecutor says it's not about him being a coach or a good guy or any of that. It's about him being a responsible adult who should have protected this young player.

I guess that the prosecutors in five other jurisdictions are now going to have to charge the other five high school and college coaches who have had kids die on their watch during the past year, including University of Central Florida Coach George O'Leary.

Somehow all of this makes me feel so uncomfortable. It makes me want to beg my son Cory to get out of the coaching business because if he pats a girl on the shoulder who did well he might be accused of some crime, or worse yet, she may want to charge him with assault and battery.

It makes you want to want to scream when is enough enough?