Posted on 09/24/2009 3:37:52 PM PDT by Senator Goldwater
Thamail Morgan took the kickoff and headed up the field. He was at the 20 ... 30 ... 40
He had been avoiding, dodging or just simply running through tacklers on the way. Football always had come easily for Morgan. This game was no different. By the time he hit midfield, only open space was ahead of him. The two-time Arkansas all-state selection was headed for a touchdown.
40 ... 30 ... 20
He glanced at the clock and saw the final seconds ticking away. He realized his team, Cave City, was on the way to a victory over Yellville-Summit, comfortably ahead, 34-16. He also realized two other things: This wasn't an ordinary game. And he wasn't the same Thamail Morgan.
When he reached the 2, he stopped. He took a few steps back and took a knee at the 5-yard line.
(Excerpt) Read more at arkansasvarsity.rivals.com ...
"He's showing people he's doing the right thing."
That was never more evident as when he kneeled down on the field.
In an age of sports narcissism and overhyupe, here's a young man behaving in a very grown up manner.
Nice kid. I hope I’m never in a foxhole with him.
Ditto!
I was expecting a 96-3 score.
I know I’ll get flack about this, but what’s the point??? Did the opposing team not know that he had the touchdown made?
Maybe its just me, but I’d rather get trounced on the sports field than have the other team treat me like a toddler.
Run the #@$#@$$ ball in, so that I can go back to the locker room and mope like God intended.
Right, this comes off as I am so much better than you guys, its no contest. I’m going to take a knee, and get extra recognition and notoriety for not running up the score. Now if he had taken a hit around mid-field and let time expire, only he would have known how noble he was.
I don’t see him scoring in this situation as running up the score. While his heart was in the right place, I don’t necessarily agree that his gesture was the right one.
I know as a player (18 years of tackle football), and a coach (9 years of youth sports), I would have been livid about it. That is just as demeaning as a coach leaving his first stringers in with a 40 point lead in my book.
Perhaps he would have enough character to see a difference in sportsmanship and combat?
I read the article. Very classy, indeed.
Adding insult to injury, however, is not ethical.
Magnanimity is a virtue, a cross between two vices: vanity and pusillanimity.
That thought comes to us from Aristotle, Alexander the Great’s (HS equivalent) teacher.
Kudos to the kid, I guess. But the article was about twice as long as it needed to be, IMO.
"Before the game, we as a team talked about being classy,'' he said. "We did not want to come out in a game like this and not show any class.
"As I was running, some of my teammates told me not to score, and I knew that scoring was not the right thing to do."
He was glad to be a part of what happened.
"I just want to thank my teammates for not only being classy all night, but pushing me to be classy as well,'' he said.
The gesture was well received.
"We weren't sure how gloomy they would be before the game,'' Morgan said. "They had gloom, but it was not as bad as we thought. We met before the game, and they told us that they did not want us to feel sorry for them, and they did not want us to back off just because of what happened. They wanted us to play them like we would have if Duffy has still been there with them, so we did.
"After the game, they complimented us, and even thanked us for the way that we played them. They are some really cool cats, and I wish them the best of luck with their healing process and the rest of their season. I hope they make the playoffs."
Lame. Play the game or don’t play at all.
Nice gesture, arguable how necessary it was but still a nice gesture. The young man is trying to do the right things and probably has a lot of pressure on him to make mark. I hope he makes it.
Snickers
Thamail?
While I can understand a game is a game, I find that one who can easily dispatch with compassion and fraternity, as such in this case, leave others quite cold.
What a pathetic, misguided gesture. His hardworking, self-sacrificing blockers should have let him get creamed at his own 20 — you know, as a gesture of sportsmanship to the opposing team.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.