PEA RIDGE — When I found out that
there was a TV crew at the
Ozark/Pea Ridge game last
week, I rushed home as
soon as I could to catch it
on the news. Sure enough,
the Pea Ridge homecom
ing game was on, as well
as a bunch of other game
highlights.
The particular channel
I was watching usually
goes behind the scenes
each week to interview
and watch up close a coach
and his team. The reporter
often goes into the locker
room at the half to watch
how the coach motivates
his players, etc. After the
clips were run from all the
area games, a coach from
a northwest Arkansas high
school was kind of relating
to the reporter his philoso
phy on coaching football,
and he came up with a line
describing the game as
“controlled violence.” That made me think for
a minute. While I consider
football a physical sport, I
don’t consider it a violent
game by necessity. There
are those who play the
game violently, but I think
the game would be better
off if those that do could
or would be constrained
from doing so. To me, the
football field is a kind of
giant chess board with
two coaches moving and
placing his players to bet
ter gain advantage over
the other. Maybe there are
those who view football
as just big gang fights with
cool clothes.
This past Friday, I and
most of the Pea Ridge
folks who were there wit
nessed a “tackle” put on
sophomore quarterback
Austin Easterling. Austin
had been having increasing success running and throwing the ball against the visiting defense and it looked like he might just lead a drive down the field for a go ahead and possibly winning score.
In the middle of the third quarter, Austin ran around the left side but hit a wall of defenders, one of whom picked Austin up, then flipped him over a hip so he would hit the turf on his head. The impact of Austin’s hitting the turf could be heard all the way to the press box and the “tackle” was violent enough to put him out of the game with a concussion. There was no flag.
I heard the coach on TV describe football as a game of violence, and I had just come from a game where I had seen just that. I looked up the meaning of violence and came up with synonyms of “abuse,” “severe action,” “untamed action” and “unjust action.”. Maybe what the defensive player did to Austin in last week’s game was controlled violence. Then again, perhaps the player didn’t just want to stop Austin’s progress on a particular play, maybe he wanted to just stop Austin period.
When football first began to be played in the 1800s, there were few rules controlling violent action.
It got so bad that numerous players were getting killed as a result of injuriessuffered while playing the game in the early 1900s. Up stepped President Teddy Roosevelt who issued a presidential order requiring the use of helmets for all players participating in football that took effect in 1943. Roosevelt also encouraged colleges and universities to get organized in order to have better control of things like football which was exactly how the NCAA was born.
The kind of play that happened here last week would have drawn flags had it been done in an NCAA contest today.
There has been heightened awareness about the scourge of concussions in athletic competitions and there has been an outcry from many camps to take action to cut down on the occurrences of them.
You would think that high school associations would be more pro-active on things like this than would be their collegiate counterparts.
The Arkansas Activities Association has taken various stands over the past few years calling for safer and safer conditions for our athletes. Anytime a player “tackles” another player in an effort to hurt him should be flagged and/or ejected. A tackle is simply stopping a player making forward progress.
Usually, this means making the ball carrying player hit the ground or go out of bounds. To go beyond that is unsportsmanlike at least and assault.
I used to coach junior high football back in the 1980s. There was an incident once where one ofour players grabbed an opposing ball carrier by the jersey. Our player whipped him around, then flung him to the turf. The kid very unwisely stuck his arm out to break his fall. The impact with the ground bent the kid’s arm so far back it snapped with pieces of bone sticking out through his skin in a horrifyingly grotesque way. What was worse was my fellow coaches’ interest in watching the replay of the kid’s arm snapping over and over again. That was the last season I ever coached football, although I remain a great fan of the sport.
I don’t think you can link the words “controlled” and “violence” together. I think one excludes the other.
Here’s hoping the AAA might consider following the lead of the NCAA to stop the kind of things from happening. As long as they are “legal,” World Wrestling Federation type tackles will stay with us.
Cross country still fourth-ranked in state
John King’s boy runners hold down the fourth spot in the state high school rankings. They are currently tied with Berryville.
Heber Springs is the state’s top ranked team followed by Shiloh in second.
DeQueen maintains their hold on third place.
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Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@ nwaonline.com.
Sports, Pages 10 on 10/20/2010