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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: mrsmel

I’ve watched games like that at the younger ages. They’re not my kids, so I don’t make an issue of it. I just take a deep breath, shut up, and endure it.


61 posted on 10/26/2014 9:53:57 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: GeronL

This is also how we fight wars.


62 posted on 10/26/2014 9:54:30 AM PDT by optiguy (If government is the answer, it was a stupid question.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

It’s Georgia....nuff said.


63 posted on 10/26/2014 9:56:41 AM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Enterprise

Yeah, like I said, it makes parents angry. I bet that the coach put the starters right back in when the score started to turn around. Oh, you can’t put the starters back in in baseball, can you? The coach was stupid to pull everyone, not in Babe Ruth. That “fairness” stuff is for grade school.


64 posted on 10/26/2014 9:57:43 AM PDT by Eva
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To: Covenantor

Might have been referring to the officers.


65 posted on 10/26/2014 9:57:47 AM PDT by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Just don’t play in these Leagues and form rival organizations that don’t have these ridiculous rules.

Starve them out.


66 posted on 10/26/2014 9:58:52 AM PDT by Ted Grant
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

It’s more the influence of females in developing these organizations.


67 posted on 10/26/2014 10:00:20 AM PDT by Ted Grant
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To: Alberta's Child

You bring up a great point....kids will always organize into fair teams in order to play a game...it is the adults that have fantasies about being the next Bear Bryant that bring the lopsided teams to a league.

My junior high team had 12 players and we went 0-12. In HS I think we lost 4-5 games in 4 years. It was the 0-12 season that stands out as the character builder in the long run. Everyone likes winning, but in order to win consistently, you have to hate losing more than you love winning.

I learned to hate losing that season. I also learned to never give up.


68 posted on 10/26/2014 10:09:28 AM PDT by willyd (I for one welcome our NSA overlords)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
The right way to do this idiotic/obolic thing is to reset the winning team's score to zero if they exceed the 32-point limit and let the game proceed.
69 posted on 10/26/2014 10:10:40 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: Enterprise

wow


70 posted on 10/26/2014 10:17:15 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."

Did they have some Prussian players on Wellington's team at Eton?

71 posted on 10/26/2014 10:17:18 AM PDT by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Little League in the 1950s, we had a ten run lead rule. If a team is up by ten runs, games over, no matter what inning. There’s no sportsmanship in winning a base ball game 48 to 0.


72 posted on 10/26/2014 10:17:35 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Eccl 12 V.13)
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To: SZonian

Can’t take back the kid running it back, but don’t go for the PAT, don’t put it on the scoreboard or stat sheet...

What’s so stinkin’ hard about that?


This is what they did when my son played baseball many years ago, when he was 6 or 7. One team was just crushing the other team, and they turned off the scoreboard. The game continued and we all knew who won the game. They let them play but didn’t keep score anymore.

Hate to see this political correctness infect kids sports with getting fined for violating the mercy rule.

So what was supposed to happen? The kid intercepts, then takes a knee to down himself? But then what happens? His team has the ball but isn’t allowed to advance towards the end zone???? What the heck???


73 posted on 10/26/2014 10:21:39 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (s)
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To: Flag_This

Good one!


74 posted on 10/26/2014 10:22:27 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Democrats have a lynch mob mentality. They always have.)
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To: Graybeard58

That rule makes sense. When the boy scored a touchdown they should’ve just called the game


75 posted on 10/26/2014 10:22:33 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: ClearCase_guy

Perhaps, though the British public school sports instilled “the plays the thing old bean, be a good sport” very much in line with PC mandated behavior of today. Fighting on despite the odds is not taught. We learn from our mistakes and losses far more than our easily achieved victories.


76 posted on 10/26/2014 10:28:07 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: Behind Liberal Lines

So now you’re not supposed to return an INT for a touchdown when you’re EIGHT if it goes over a mercy rule. Stupid soft PC society we live in right now.

Learning how to lose is just as important as learning how to win.


77 posted on 10/26/2014 10:28:26 AM PDT by NYRepublican72 (Democrats -- it's always someone else's fault.)
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To: Eva

The coach was known to us all, and we believed him to be knowledgeable and competent. It’s frustrating to parents who put a lot of time, effort, and money into supporting their kids and the team to see a coach do something so stupid.


78 posted on 10/26/2014 10:32:55 AM PDT by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: GeronL

Why not just end the games at 25 points? First one there wins...


79 posted on 10/26/2014 10:33:57 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Hey Obama: If Islamic State is not Islamic, then why did you give Osama Bin Laden a muslim funeral?)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I coached basketball teams that lost by 55 points and that won by 55 points. We played until the buzzer sounded. No game is truly “lost” unless you don’t learn from it. I knew my kids would never play college basketball or be in the NBA. What they ALL could be, was a good coach when they grew up. And being a Dad has some coaching in it.
I can’t tell you the scores of my Little League games. What I do remember was the coach talking to me before I went out to bat in our second game. He told me that he believed in me and that he knew I could hit because I’d hit in our first game. THAT was coaching. That is a lesson that a boy can take with him the rest of his life.
My success as a coach is just now starting to come into view. My boys are doing well in college. None of them is on a school team. One of them just waged a knockout battle with lung cancer. He didn’t quit. He looked it in the eye and said, “Give me your worst. I ain’t an easy out.” I couldn’t be prouder.


80 posted on 10/26/2014 10:36:07 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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