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How an 8-year-old's first touchdown resulted in a $500 fine, coach suspension
Post Standard, Syracuse NY ^ | October 26, 2014 at 11:02 AM | By Allie Healy

Posted on 10/26/2014 9:03:23 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

Elijah Burrell did what he was taught to do if he intercepted the football -- score a touchdown. But the 8-year-old's pick-six play wasn't much to celebrate after the team was fined $500 for violating the Gwinnett Football League's mercy rule...

the Lawrenceville Black Knights were winning against their opponents, 32-0, in the fourth quarter. Burrell then intercepted a pass and went through with the touchdown, failing to comply with the league's mercy rule.

That six-point score caused the Georgia-based team to surpass the 33-point rule, which earned the coach a week-long suspension and the team a $500 fine.

(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: burrell; lawrenceville; mercy; touchdown
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Teaching males to suppress their warrior instincts, to further create a nation of wussified men and harpy women.


41 posted on 10/26/2014 9:33:58 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Textide
That said, there are fundamental rules of discipline (run 4 miles today for fitness....nah, there's no coach, not today), positioning (I like to play center forward...but so do most of the other players. Who wants to be a midfielder that runs miles every game?), and team management (pick a starting lineup. Decide on substitutions) that just can't be performed by children.

I'm sorry, but I think you are flat-out wrong about this. Kids will figure it out. If they aren't old enough to figure it out then they aren't old enough to play the game at that level of organization, discipline and management.

Personally, I don't think kids should play organized sports (and by this I mean "organized" by adults) until they get to high school. The only exception to this might be a sport where an adult gets involved as an official (but only if the kids think it's absolutely necessary).

The best ballplayer in my circle of childhood acquaintances was one of my younger brothers. He never played Little League, and never played any organized baseball until high school. What he had done previously, though, was spend 3-4 years playing with kids several years older than him (my friends). By the time he got to high school at the age of 14 he had already been playing with kids who were 15-17 years old -- and it really showed on the field.

42 posted on 10/26/2014 9:36:49 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The ship be sinking.")
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To: Enterprise

It’s not a mercy rule if there are big fines involved, it’s a revenue rule.


43 posted on 10/26/2014 9:37:43 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: irv; Enterprise; a fool in paradise

I wonder how many games end with a tie at 28 points, or 31 points?


44 posted on 10/26/2014 9:38:42 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: rktman

Dumbing down all the kids in classes, teaching to the lowest common denominator, forcing males to suppress their testosterone while pumping females up to be aggressive, putting kids into a sexualised culture which, when the chickens come home to roost, is then “fixed” with more social engineering (a “contract” before sex in college, when they should be there to learn in the first place)—there is no aspect of the world in which a leftist cannot create a problem which they will then “fix” by creating another problem.


45 posted on 10/26/2014 9:39:12 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I was just thinking of that.


46 posted on 10/26/2014 9:39:41 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Texas Eagle

“First World Problems” is good.

Here’s a George Carlin video that specifically talks about kids not allowed to lose anymore.

EXTREME LANGUAGE ALERT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6wOt2iXdc4


47 posted on 10/26/2014 9:40:19 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: Enterprise
This is not a true application of the mercy rule as I have observed it in the past. With a mercy rule in place, once a certain level is reached, the game is over. An example of the mercy rule would be in a BB league that plays seven innings. If a team is ten runs ahead at the end of the fifth inning, the game ends. In this case, because there is no one point rule in American football other than a PAT, this game was effectively over. By setting the rule at 32 points, it requires the team that is ahead to refrain from scoring, and it must stop at the 1 yard line of the opponent and turn the ball over.
The rule applied to these kids was poorly thought out. Once the score went ABOVE 32, the mercy rule would be applied and the game ends.

That sounds complicated.

48 posted on 10/26/2014 9:40:26 AM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: ontap

If they are going to have a mercy rule, in football, they have to end the game, unless they have a big enough bench to substitute second string players. My guess is that is the intention of the mercy rule, play everyone. I know that parents get mad, but that is the way grade school sports are run these days.


49 posted on 10/26/2014 9:41:43 AM PDT by Eva
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To: Enterprise

I think that the mercy rule in football is intended to force the coach to substitute the second string for the starters when he sees that the other team is out matched.


50 posted on 10/26/2014 9:43:47 AM PDT by Eva
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

They groom these kids from the start to be supine catamites.


51 posted on 10/26/2014 9:44:16 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: rockinqsranch
It’s a liberal fantasy forced upon our reality.

Isn't that sort of like almost every thread on this forum?

52 posted on 10/26/2014 9:45:14 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Enterprise

It wasn’t good enough to teach the kids that they mustn’t do their best, and it doesn’t matter anyway because “everyone wins”, they want the kids to internalise this ethos for themselves, by stopping themselves from scoring.


53 posted on 10/26/2014 9:46:11 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Eton has a lot of playing fields


54 posted on 10/26/2014 9:46:12 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: ClearCase_guy
The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

That sounded all well and good to me when I first read it in high school. Reading more on the Napleonic wars and the Eton of that era made me wonder what the hell the Iron Duke was taking about. Eton was a tiny school and sure as hell didn't turn out the men in the British square. Wellington often referred to his line troops as essentially thugs, not sportsmen. Me thinks there's a newspaper man at the bottom of this.

55 posted on 10/26/2014 9:46:43 AM PDT by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: GeronL

That’s another major problem with this. A monetary fine for a mercy rule violation? Ridiculous!


56 posted on 10/26/2014 9:46:57 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

And here is a bit of blasphemy for you all. This just goes to show that people are taking a game way too far. A league of 8 year-olds with $500 fines and suspensions? That it came to this shows how many people get way too serious about it.

I played football when it was fun. Winning was important and the reason to play but somehow it had limits. We had a great coach, an adult, who truly promoted character building and team work as much or more than winning and we did win most of the time then we moved to another town. I quit when the limits went away and “adult” coaches used adolescents as the tool for their own pitiful glory. The dumbest football player was much more well known and celebrated than the sharpest kid in school who would become a research scientist or business leader. The football player is a long forgotten drunk, drug addict or convict. Only a few became otherwise notable. The coaches are dead or retired and mowing lawns. The scientist and business leader remain unknown in that small ignorant town and we have fines and suspensions for 8 year-old football leagues.

Yahoo.


57 posted on 10/26/2014 9:47:56 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Obola brought to you by demorats. Hope you like your Change and live to tell it.)
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To: Alberta's Child
I saw a fascinating interview with Wayne Gretzky a few years ago. He was careful to be very diplomatic and spoke highly of youth hockey coaches in general, but he was also pretty open about his opinion that the countless hours he spent playing hockey in his own backyard were far more instrumental in his success than any "youth hockey coach" was

Gone are the says when young boys could gather together, pick leaders, form teams, establish rules, and play a pickup game of baseball or hockey for fun. Years latter IO went to watch a friend's son play in little league baseball. I was astonished when I saw a coach screaming and berating a player.

I see no fun in adult supervised sports, only indoctrination. Boys are not learning skills to organize themselves, they need a governing body to play. Self reliance is not treasured.

58 posted on 10/26/2014 9:48:27 AM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (antine)
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To: GeronL; Eva; irv

Years ago, one of my sons was on a team in Babe Ruth playoffs. They built up a huge lead early and the coach pulled the starters. We ended up losing the game.


59 posted on 10/26/2014 9:51:28 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Covenantor

I believe it’s recognized as a made-up quote from the 1940s.

But I believe the point is that Leaders need to hunger from competition, have to be willing to take risks, and have to recognize that winning is better than losing.

And you are correct that Wellington had other quotes which were unkind to the “rabble” who didn’t go to Eton and yet stood shoulder to shoulder facing cannon fire.

But if American children are to become leaders, then watering down sports competitions is not a path to that goal.


60 posted on 10/26/2014 9:52:17 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Democrats have a lynch mob mentality. They always have.)
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