Medina Today

Let’s Talk Sportsmanship and respect

Sports is about competition and doing your best on the field or in the arena and not getting off the gas until victory is assured. There is no “participation trophy” in true traditional organized amateur or professional sports. Play hard or don’t play. Win or go home.

I never give less than 100 percent on the field and I don’t expect my opponents to do any less. Still, there comes a time in some games, when it is good to let up and NOT embarrass your opponent. Most decent college football and basketball programs will play subs and down-team replacements when a game is no longer in doubt. Even in close games, there are athletes who don’t bat flip, or fist-pump or dance and entertain after a score. Mickey Mantle was asked if he watched his powerfully majestic tape-measure homers and he said, “Sometimes out of the corner of my eye, but I just ran with my head down because I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough that he gave up a homer and I didn’t want to make him feel any worse.

I bring this up because on Oct. 29, in a Los Angeles-based high school football game, Inglewood High demolished Inglewood Morningside 106-0. Inglewood scored 59 points in the first quarter alone, but their head coach, Mil’Von James refused to play backups and even told officials NOT to use a running clock to shorten the game.

OK, it was a blowout and the coach wanted his top players to pad their stats. I get that. UCLA-commit  Justyn Martin, Inglewood High’s quarterback played the entire game and threw 13 TD passes.  OK  … but at the end of the game, up 104-0, Inglewood High went for a two-point conversion pass, instead of the traditional one-point kick attempt.

That is the one that breaks the camel’s back … have some class coach … have some class. Nice message to send your students, the community and the sport.

I am all for stats and results, and competition is all about competing as hard as you can. When you are in the field of battle, you must play as hard as you can at all times. I have been there and I get that. I never let up on the field and I don’t even like losing to my kids at Nerf ball, but there comes a time during a lopsided game when you take your foot off the gas and allow the other side some dignity. You certainly don’t rub it in after you have made your point. Maybe that is why I am against the taunting, the held poses, the chest-beating, the muscle pumping, the bat flips and the finger-pointing when a player hits a home run, gets a sack, drains a three or makes a play he is paid to make (in pros) or is expected to make as an amateur. That’s why you are out there … to make the plays. Sportsmanship.

In addition to “The Mick” (above) … Wilt Chamberlain never slammed a dunk with flair, preferring just to stuff it in the basket so as not to show off due to his height. Jimmy Brown put the ball down after a touchdown – no dance for arguably the best back ever. Class is class … exhibit some and it will pay you back.

It isn’t a sign of weakness. In NHL hockey, as tough a group of athletes on the planet, there is the Lady Byng trophy for “Most gentlemanly player.” Winners include Bobby Hull, Alex Delvecchio, Red Kelly, Johnny Bucyk, Stan Mikita and Wayne Gretzky (“The Great One”). No one EVER called them weak.

While 106-0 is a score rarely seen at any level of football, it’s not the largest margin of victory.  The most lopsided football score of all time is widely considered to be Georgia Tech’s 222-0 win over Cumberland in 1916. Cumberland's baseball team had demolished Georgia Tech earlier that year, 22–0, under allegations that Cumberland used professionals as ringers, and Tech coach John Heisman figured payback was earned. By the way, they shortened the second half by six minutes. And in Kansas in 1927, Haven High School beat Sylvia High 256-0.

But we are NOT going for the record, we are going for respect and allowing an opponent some dignity AFTER the game has been decided.

Show some class in sports.  What do YOU think?  Tell me at mike.blake@advantageinformatics.com.

See you next time.