We usually get the occasional story of a youth football game forfeited and a coach arrested for attacking a referee every once in a while.
Deadspin, however, today reports that a Pennsylvania youth football league has shut down for the year -- and the cause is violent threats against the game officials!
The final straw came when someone, on Monday, placed a box of ammunition shells at the gate of the park where games were being played, and, on those shells were written the names of game officials.
This, after one game degenerated into a parent fight several weeks back, and another set of threats actually forced another game to be rescheduled in this league.
Well, there you go. Let's just fuck over the kids even further here. One has to wonder about the condition of some of these kids if this is how the referees are going to be treated.
One also has to wonder if there's money being bet on these games, like ESPN revealed drug thugs have been doing in similar leagues in Florida for a number of years.
I was playing a pickup football game this weekend on a field used for youth football, and a truck comes up to drop off equipment in the shed up a hill from us. I said to this one guy that they shouldn't be playing youth football, and he agreed. I then said that they shouldn't be playing organized ball until 9th or 10th grade, and he also agreed.
ReplyDeleteLet them play backyard tackle until then. It may get them in the habit of keeping their heads up, since most people don't play backyard with equipment.