106-0 - yay or nay?

[Moranis]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/04/us/inglewood-morningside-high-school-football-game-trnd/index.html

So a high school team beat another high school team 106-0 and the administrator of the 106 point team has apologized for poor sportsmanship.  Normally that stuff doesn't really bother me (it is sports, it happens), but it appears in this instance the winning team left their starters in as their QB ended up with 13 passing TD's (the QB is headed to UCLA so is obviously very talented).   They scored their final TD to make it 104-0 and then went for 2.  Going for 2 and leaving the starting QB in and passing, crosses a line for me.  It was 56-0 at the end of the 1st quarter and 83-0 at half time.  Vast talent discrepancies happen all of the time in high school sports, but there should be a better recognition in my mind of things outside of sport and it is just poor form to leave your starters in to run up the score.  If they were still dominating with the 4th stringers, so be it, but this just doesn't sit well with me.

[JohnBoy65]

I am a high school football coach in upstate NY. This is by no means acceptable. The general rule of thumb, at least in my area, is you play like you normally would until halftime. In this particular instance you could've completely subbed after the 1st quarter. What you wrote demonstrates to me the coach knows how to lay off. He scored 83 in the first half, but only 23 in the 2nd half. Clearly, the coach changed things, but it should've happened after the first quarter.

In a blowout game like this you have the opportunity to work on things you might not normally work on. Different blocking schemes, punt team, try different players in different spots. All of those strategies would've limited the scoring without risking a loss after the 1st quarter.

I agree with your synopsis. This is utterly classless.

[Jiri Welsch]

Not acceptable. They are kids -- teach them how to be productive and caring human beings in all of life.

[Roy H.]

I agree with you analysis.  It sounds like they took their foot off the gas somewhat (only 23-0 in the second half), but I don’t know why they’d risk their QB’s health, even beyond sportsmanship.

[tazzmaniac]

There needs to be a mercy rule.  Don't see any point of players on either team risking injury when one team is up 83 points at half time. 

[Donoghus]

Head coach seems like a real prick.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

[JohnBoy65]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

Except that is not the case here. You're comparing a professional team to a D3 College team. Of course it'd be impossible to not win by a huge margin. This is 2 high school teams. Somewhere on Inglewood's roster are people that have similar skill level.

[Roy H.]

There needs to be a mercy rule.  Don't see any point of players on either team risking injury when one team is up 83 points at half time.

Yeah, agreed.  Where would you personally draw the line?  Any lead of 50 or more at or after halftime sounds good to me.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

Except that is not the case here. You're comparing a professional team to a D3 College team. Of course it'd be impossible to not win by a huge margin. This is 2 high school teams. Somewhere on Inglewood's roster are people that have similar skill level.

I didn't scout these two particular high school teams. I do know that I went to high school and we faced teams that were much better and much worse than us. In theory and practice, there could be massive size/talent differences, especially in high school.

[JohnBoy65]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

Except that is not the case here. You're comparing a professional team to a D3 College team. Of course it'd be impossible to not win by a huge margin. This is 2 high school teams. Somewhere on Inglewood's roster are people that have similar skill level.

I didn't scout these two particular high school teams. I do know that I went to high school and we faced teams that were much better and much worse than us. In theory and practice, there could be massive size/talent differences, especially in high school.

I don't know the size of these schools, but I would imagine both of these schools have pretty sizeable teams. You can't tell me there aren't 11 players on Inglewood's team that are similar in skill, or just below skill level of the other team. Of course there are teams that are better and worse, that's the nature of competition. The fact the 2nd half was 23-0 proves that coach could've kept it closer, most likely he was playing some of his 'lower skill' guys more time.

[Moranis]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

Except that is not the case here. You're comparing a professional team to a D3 College team. Of course it'd be impossible to not win by a huge margin. This is 2 high school teams. Somewhere on Inglewood's roster are people that have similar skill level.

I didn't scout these two particular high school teams. I do know that I went to high school and we faced teams that were much better and much worse than us. In theory and practice, there could be massive size/talent differences, especially in high school.

I don't know the size of these schools, but I would imagine both of these schools have pretty sizeable teams. You can't tell me there aren't 11 players on Inglewood's team that are similar in skill, or just below skill level of the other team. Of course there are teams that are better and worse, that's the nature of competition. The fact the 2nd half was 23-0 proves that coach could've kept it closer, most likely he was playing some of his 'lower skill' guys more time.

The whole second half was a running clock which actually started in the 2nd quarter.  The running clock is how they do the mercy rule these days.

An interesting side note, the team that had 0 is the alma mater of Lisa Leslie who once scored 101 of the teams 102 points in the 1st Half of a basketball game.  The other team didn't even come out of the locker room after half time and the final was 102-24.  So they are no stranger to epic beat downs in high school sports.

[Csfan1984]

I would run up the score in today's game where everything can go on a highlight reel that could get one of my students a scholarship. Nothing against the other team or rubbing it in, just business.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Is there any chance that these teams should have never played?

This sounds silly, but bear with me....

What would the score be between the Celtics and Fitchburg State (for instance) in basketball? How could Udoka make sure that they don't win by 100 points?

Except that is not the case here. You're comparing a professional team to a D3 College team. Of course it'd be impossible to not win by a huge margin. This is 2 high school teams. Somewhere on Inglewood's roster are people that have similar skill level.

I didn't scout these two particular high school teams. I do know that I went to high school and we faced teams that were much better and much worse than us. In theory and practice, there could be massive size/talent differences, especially in high school.

I don't know the size of these schools, but I would imagine both of these schools have pretty sizeable teams. You can't tell me there aren't 11 players on Inglewood's team that are similar in skill, or just below skill level of the other team. Of course there are teams that are better and worse, that's the nature of competition. The fact the 2nd half was 23-0 proves that coach could've kept it closer, most likely he was playing some of his 'lower skill' guys more time.

The whole second half was a running clock which actually started in the 2nd quarter.  The running clock is how they do the mercy rule these days.

An interesting side note, the team that had 0 is the alma mater of Lisa Leslie who once scored 101 of the teams 102 points in the 1st Half of a basketball game.  The other team didn't even come out of the locker room after half time and the final was 102-24.  So they are no stranger to epic beat downs in high school sports.

We might not be used to beatdowns like this in the northeast. If Lebron James played against my HS team, we would have lost by 200.

[gift]

There needs to be a mercy rule.  Don't see any point of players on either team risking injury when one team is up 83 points at half time.

The mercy rule is the probably correct answer. It's not the job of the winning team to determine the line and it's not anyone outside of the team's place to talk about who should or shouldn't be playing or which plays they should be running.

We don't expect the losing team to 'quit' because of the message it sends to the players. However, if we universally agree that the risk of continuing is not worth it, maybe it should be on the losing team, if anyone, to decide to quit if the circumstances warrant it. For instance, I expect a fighter's corner to throw in the towel so the fighter can live to fight another day. If that's a lesson worth learning, then it's a lesson that should be practiced by the losing team.