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Highlight Reel: Division 4 Semifinals

November 26, 2014

The Grand Rapids South Christian football team defeated Edwardsburg 50-48 in a Division 4 Semifinal on Saturday, and Lansing Sexton downed Detroit Country Day 28-14. Click the headings below for highlights: 

VANVOORST FIRST TD CATCH - Eric VanVoorst had two touchdown catches for Grand Rapids South Christian against Edwardsburg. Here's the first - a 32-yard reception in the second quarter. 

EDDIES BOUNCE BACK - After Grand Rapids South Christian scored on its first possession, Edwardsburg responded with a 66-yard TD run by Isiah Miller. 

FAULKNER GOES THE DISTANCE - With less than a second left in the first period, Karey Faulkner goes 76 yards for Lansing Sexton for a score.

PENSON TIGHTENS IT UP - Detroit Country Day got back in the game midway through the fourth quarter on this 8-yard run by Larry Penson. 

Watch the South Christian/Edwardsburg game in its entirety and order DVDs by Clicking Here, or Sexton/Country Day by Clicking Here.

NFL Misdirection

September 26, 2014

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell did something I really respect; and then he didn’t.

On Aug. 28, the commissioner sent a letter to the NFL’s 32 owners in which he admitted that he “didn’t get it right” when he assessed a mere two-game suspension for a player who was seen on videotape to be involved in domestic abuse. I admire his admission. (The player later would be suspended indefinitely from the league following additional evidence in the incident)

Unfortunately, the commissioner accompanied his mea culpa by describing a series of initiatives the league will undertake, one of which – once again – attempts to deflect a public relations disaster upon high schools.

When the NFL was under attack for the head trauma its players were experiencing, the league responded with a state-by-state campaign to impose youth concussion laws which, in most places, were mostly unfunded mandates that are more about symbolism than substance.

Now, again under attack for malfeasance by a workforce with more money than maturity, the league’s leadership is deflecting the blame to college, high school and youth football programs by planning educational efforts aimed at those levels.

Commissioner! Clean up your mess, but leave us alone. You are gutting public support of school sports with one televised game Thursday, three on Sunday and another on Monday, and adding Saturday games in December. Don’t have this out-of-control league lecture our level about restraint and responsibility.

Ours is the level that prohibits sack dances and end zone prances. We insist that our interscholastic players demonstrate maturity that the NFL’s players do not.