Behind the Mike

Sportsmanship is about fairness, ethics and respect and a sense of fellowship with one’s competitor.   Former Florida Coach Steve Spurrier, who now heads up the football fortunes at the University of South Carolina, was once questioned about running up the score on a Gator opponent.  Spurrier’s response was something to the effect that it’s not his team’s job to keep the score down; that’s the other team’s responsibility.

Rubbing it in the face of a hapless opponent brings up the issues of “sore loser” as well as the “bad winner” argument.  In some ways, it’s all about something called situational ethics.

When Lake Nona High School recently clobbered winless Celebration High School 68-10 in a Florida matchup, the losing coach Ben Aarestad called his opponent’s methods into question.  “It was 47-10 in the second quarter and he’s (Coach Anthony Paradiso) using all his time outs in a two-minute drill to score.”

Lake Nona Coach Anthony Paradiso acknowledged that he left his starters in to allow freshman quarterback Tucker Israel to break the state touchdown passing record (10), beating the previous record (8).    And while Paradiso did order his team to take a knee on three consecutive plays to run out the clock in the fourth quarter, the damage had been done in his opponent’s eyes.

At the Pop Warner levels you have mercy rules and even at the varsity high school football level you have such things as a “running clock” to hurry the romp along.  History is laced with hundreds of examples of even larger margins of victory at every level that the sport is played.

When is enough too much? As a coach, you put players on the field to contest a game and you expect them to give it their all regardless of the circumstances.  How do you say to a player to lay down on a play and not give his best?

If you’re a fan of Celebration football, there’s not much to celebrate here but to whine about your opponent running up the score is tantamount to a public pity party.  The best move that Coach Aarestad could have made was to say nothing and let the critics do his talking for him.  He should have remained quiet or simply congratulate both teams on playing the game… and leave it at that.  He would have taken the high road and the noble position, leaving his opponent to explain his actions.

Instead, he’s now defending the lopsided loss by blaming his opponent for doing what he’s paid to do, win football games.  There are coaches that have been fired for running up a score.  A girls’ basketball coach at Covenant Christian School in Texas was fired after winning by a score of 100-0.  The school called it “shameful and an embarrassment.”  On the other hand, thousands more have been fired for not winning by enough of a margin.

Time out!  Didn’t you hire the coach to win? Did you specify that he should walk his team off the field of battle after a certain score?  Yes, what we have here are situational ethics.   Should a coach’s career be ended because he did what he was paid to do?

Perhaps the answer lay in the rules themselves.  If high school athletics doesn’t want a repeat of this kind of thing, then call the game after a certain score and be done with it.  Don’t expect players not to play and coaches not to coach.  That’s what they are supposed to do.  One could make the argument that any effort less than their best would be unacceptable.

Coach Paradiso defended his position by saying “I understand everybody has their own perception.  When you’ve got a kid who has a shot to get a record like that, you’ve got to go for it.”

Imagine in your mind’s eye if the losing coach would not have said a word.  Wouldn’t the perception of his opponent’s decision have been a bit different?  Perhaps not, but why diminish the value of your position by saying anything at all.  Take the high road and let perception become reality.

I recently learned that my precious granddaughters Ashley (5) and Ava (3) would join me and their dad on the St. Cloud gridiron for an upcoming Bulldog Homecoming football game.

Cory is one of the coaches.  I get to be the world’s oldest ball boy and my babies are scheduled to be the crown bearers for the Bulldog’s Homecoming.

Both girls are particularly excited about being able to carry the crowns to midfield to present them to the new King and Queen of football for St. Cloud High School.

Ashley, who just turned five, raised and interesting question:  “Why do they have a new King and Queen each year?”  Good point Ashley.  Probably not necessary, but then we’ve be missing out on a ton of distractions for the players not to mention a barrel of fun for the community… so let the crowning process continue!

Ava is the tom-boy of the two and has some serious thighs which would make her an excellent weightlifter, according to her dad, who is the Head Weight Lifting Coach at St. Cloud.  Still, both are excited about donning their dresses to make the mid-field walk.

Homecoming is one of those annual events that every high school in the nation looks forward to each year.  Everyone is excited except the coaches who have to deal with the distractions that it causes.

Still, Homecoming allows us to unite the past with the present.  It allows us to remember those heroes of yesteryear while honoring the kids who are currently playing.

There’s even a YouTube video that dates back to 1976 of St. Cloud High School’s Homecoming Parade.  Go figure.  Some of the current player’s parents and grandparents were probably in that parade.

One could make the argument that Homecoming allows us to come back to where our heart really is.  It’ll be nice for Ashley and Ava to look back on their mid-field jaunt and tell their children about it one day.  If “parting is such sweet sorrow,” said Shakespeare, then reuniting must offer reunion bliss.

Actually, Ava and Ashley will quickly learn as they grow older that Homecoming is not about Kings and Queens.  Home is a place we grow up hoping to leave and then we spend the rest of our lives looking for an excuse to return.  It’s about football, floats, crown bearers and fun, not to mention tradition.

Like every other high school in the nation, St. Cloud, Florida will make much adieu about what many think is nothing.  Yes, there is always some insanity involved with the annual Homecoming event, but there’s a lot of tradition and fun involved as well.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “We cannot always build on the future of our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”  In some ways, that’s what Homecoming helps to do, build and maintain a tradition.

Some would argue that football is not a contact sport but rather a collision sport.  Well Homecoming allows for “the real contact sport, dancing,” so said former Michigan State football coach Duffy Daugherty.

The other thing that Homecoming allows is for us to begin the long process of building old friends.  You can’t make old friends until you make new ones and Homecoming is one of those catalysts.

In my old high school in Lexington, SC, the senior football players got to sponsor their Homecoming Queen.  I didn’t even date the girl I selected but she won the Homecoming Queen as I recall.  Thankfully, we didn’t crown a King at our school.  I can imagine how stupid I would look dressed in a football uniform with a crown on my head, but I digress.

Coach Mike Ditka might have described it best.  “If you’re not in the parade, you watch the parade.  That’s life.”

My advice to Ava and Ashley, enjoy the parade and have some fun while you can, because your mom, Casey, is probably going to scoop you up as soon as your duties are complete to hustle you home to go to bed as it’ll be well past your bedtime.  That’s life!

In addition to my weekly ball boy duties for the St. Cloud Bulldogs varsity football team, I occasionally get to deliver the pre-game motivational speech.  My luck… I always draw the tough “can’t win” assignments.

I remember when Coach Lou Holtz had me speak to South Carolina’s Gamecocks. They had just entered the new millennium in the midst of their horrible 21-game losing streak.  “And now… here’s the motivational speaker!”   I suppose if they were undefeated, they wouldn’t need a motivational speaker.

After having done scores of these presentations all over the south in both high school and colleges, I’ve learned that the simple fact is you can’t motivate anybody to do anything they don’t already want to do.  I truly feel that every player is motivated to win, but sometimes Goliath prevails.

Case in point, I recently gave my “David versus Goliath” speech to the St. Cloud Bulldogs right before they unsuccessfully ventured to Lakeland to take on the powerful, nationally ranked Dreadnaughts.    Lakeland is a team that has won six state championships and two back-to-back National Championships.  Talking about feeling intimidated…

Lakeland has a stadium that seats 8,000 screaming fans and most of the seats are full on Friday nights.  The multi-million dollar facility just recently had artificial turf installed.  They even have a live video feed that fills a half-million dollar video screen in the south end zone.  This is big time high school football on a national scale.

I only felt more intimidated when I spoke at Texas A&M as the Aggies were playing National Champion arch-rival Texas back in 2005.   The David versus Goliath speech didn’t work then either.  Sometimes Goliath wins.

Let’s face it- Goliath was a nine foot giant soldier from Garth who bragged that he could beat any Israelite soldier who would dare to fight him.  Goliath got his rep the honest way- he beat every foe before David happened along with his sling and the five smooth stones he retrieved from the creek bed.  King Saul had wanted David to put on heavy armor and a helmet, but the young shepherd boy would have none of that or the sword that the King tried to give him.  He ended up slaying Goliath with the giant’s own sword.

How does a much smaller, outsized team from the tiny rural town of St. Cloud, Florida compete with Goliath from Lakeland?  The Bulldogs were riddled with injuries and managed to dress fewer than thirty players, less than half of the number that graced the Dreadnaught sidelines.

When I do my ball boy duties, I usually work from the St. Cloud sidelines, but the referees wanted the Bulldog and Dreadnaught ball boys on the home side of the field and the chain crew on the visitor side.

When I introduce myself as the ball boy, the referees usually look at me with a bit of pity in their eyes as if to say “Are you sure you can handle this old man?”  They never have to worry about me.  I’m not some kid who has an arm in a sling, and he has thus been relegated to the humiliating role of ball boy.  I’m 62 years old and probably the oldest ball boy in America today.  You do your job Mr. Ref and I’ll do mine.

Unlike most ball boys for many teams St. Cloud plays, I actually follow the action and enjoy every minute of it.  I’m blessed that the coaches allow me to be a part of it, especially since my son Cory is one of those coaches.

During halftime, I stopped at mid-field to chat with the Head Referee an old-timer like me is on the golden side of his life.  I asked him how long he had been refereeing football games and he told me it was close to 50 years.   Well, if he can get up and down the field and manage to stay out of the way of people who weigh twice as much as he does, then I can dodge those same guys on the sidelines.

“Why are you still doing this? I asked him.  His response:  “It keeps me young!”  I guess that’s why I like being the ball boy and the motivational speaker for the guys, but unfortunately, sometimes Goliath wins.

There is room for reasonable debate about who is lying or who is just crying in the two major professional sports of football and basketball.

Since the NFL owners refuse to open their books to their player partners, one could make the argument “What are they trying to hide?” On the flip side of that argument, why should any business owner have to reveal anything to his employee or an outside contractor?

The NBA owners, on the other hand, are falling all over themselves opening their books because they claim that most of their franchises are losing money. Whose fault is that? Someone needs to pass a law protecting the NBA owners from themselves. NBA ownership is a classic example of self-destructive, addictive behavior.

So now both leagues are in the midst of fighting- billionaires fighting with millionaires. Most of us really could care less. We fault them all because almost every argument is about greed. The lone exception to that rule is the irreparable damage that has been done to retired and disabled athletes. There is definitely a place for them at the bargaining table.

With estimated NFL revenues of some $9 billion expected this year, why can’t something be done to reach out to the athletes who are disabled because they put themselves in harm’s way on the gridiron? Aside from that issue, most of us could care less how the rest of the pie is split.

The last thing the NFL wants at this point is to have a court of law dictating to them solutions for this problem. With all due respect to judges everywhere, you know you’re in deep water when any higher authority says to you, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

Couple this with the possibility that owners could begin losing revenue from the preseason games that are just around the corner and suddenly the bosses are squirming. The first side that blinks loses.

With the NFL work stoppage now over one hundred days in length, the eleventh hour is here. The time for a settlement is clearly now for gridiron bosses. The union previously wanted over half the pie for the players and the bosses said no to that proposal.

“I’m from the court and I’m here to help you” is quietly being whispered in the owner’s ears. The court seems to be saying “fix this mess or we’ll fix it for you boys.” You can guarantee that if the judicial steps in, those books will be opened forthwith and some stunning accounting practices will be unveiled for all to see. This is the last thing the bosses want to see happen. Tick, tick, tick.

The NBA mess is another story. While NBA commish David Stern seems to have done a terrific job selling the product, the idiot owners can’t seem to get out of their own way, over spending on athletes that are past their prime in hopes of buying a championship.

How to you protect people from self-destruction? Why should they? Let them fail. Contraction might, in fact, be the best thing that could happen to the NBA. Let some of these losing markets disappear into the sunset. Let the profitable franchises stay and goodbye to the weaklings. This is what capitalism is supposed to be about. As the Mafia bosses in The Godfather once said, “After all, we are not Communists.” The NBA is more socialistic than capitalistic.

Marx said, “From each according to his abilities and to each according to his needs.” This seems to be the way the NBA is being run nowadays. Let’s take special care of those guys who are losing money and let’s do so at the expense of those who are profitable. Marx would be proud.

At the time of this posting, no solutions have been reached in either professional league but my guess is that the NFL will fix their problem just in time before the cavalry arrives, thus saving the “golden goose.”

On the other hand, look for the NBA to miss some or all of next season. It appears their stupidity had no bounds.