By Moses Leos III
Of all the emotions sports can bring, perhaps nothing is as soul crushing as being on the wrong end of a blowout.
I would know. I’ve been on a few football teams that stared a large defeat in the face. As a fan of UTEP Miner football, getting blasted by a better team is often a regular occurrence. So it goes.
Despite the pain a blowout loss can bring, it’s also something that is necessary — both in sports and in life. Sometimes you need that 250-pound dose of reality to refocus yourself.
But that all changed when the Aledo Bearcats put a 91-0 drubbing on the Western Hills High football team last season.
The outcry from that contest went far and wide, gaining national attention. Aledo suddenly became the bully — bolstered by a bullying claim filed by a parent of a Western Hills football player. That claim was ultimately denied by the Aledo school district.
It then begged the question: should there be a mercy rule to protect schools from a blowout loss?
According to the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the governing body of public high school football in Texas, the answer is no.
On Tuesday, the UIL athletic standing committee rejected a written proposal to institute a mercy-rule in 11-man football.
It’s a decision I can agree with. High school football doesn’t really need it right now.
The reasoning stems from the 91-0 itself. One has to take a closer look at that game to see what really happened.
People must realize many steps were taken to avoid the 91-0 blowout. Aledo’s coaching staff pulled starters well before the second half. Both teams agreed to have a running clock in the third quarter.
Western Hills head coach Jon Naylor went as far as to dismiss the bullying claim. He told the Fort Worth Star Telegram “the game was handled just fine.”
It’s that mentality that leads me to think a mercy rule isn’t a priority.
I’d like to think most coaches aren’t out to publicly humiliate opposing teams by purposefully running up the score.
Most of the time, coaches are apt to pull their starters once a game is well in hand. It’s done not only for a safety’s standpoint, but also as a general rule of sportsmanship.
In addition, coaches on the bad end of a blowout loss use the experience as a teaching tool. The willingness to keep going can be forged in such moments.
Players learn to band together. They also use it as a motivating factor – to never let it happen again.
All are tools that last a lifetime.
Sure, losing stinks; losing by a wide margin feels even worse.
However, as an athlete and a fan of sports, I’ve come to realize it’s a part of life.
You learn from it, and just keep going.
