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Ready for Some Football

August 12, 2014

How seriously should we take public criticism of tackle football when that public promotes boxing or cage fighting? Or how seriously should we take public criticism of football played with helmets when that public allows motorcyclists to ride without any helmets at all?

This fickle if not hypocritical focus on football deserves to be exposed. 

However, and more importantly, this does not reduce our obligation to rise above the obvious questions of fair and balanced criticism and keep pressing for a safer environment for schools’ most popular participation sport.

In Michigan this has led to new limitations on head-to-head contact in football practices that began for more than 600 high schools this week. Specifically, no team or individual may participate in more than one collision practice per day before the first game, and no more than two collision practices per week after the first game.

The new policies promote instruction in proper blocking and tackling technique. It is full speed head-to-head contact that is further reduced, not full speed shoulder contact with sleds, shields and dummies nor slow speed contact between players.

Last month, and perhaps two years too late to be helpful, the National Federation of State High School Associations hosted a high-profile, high-powered summit to discuss practice policies of the kind that we developed, debated and adopted during the past school year to be ready for this 2014 season.

Watch Selection Sunday Online

October 25, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

High school football fans unable to watch tonight’s announcement of the qualifiers and pairings for the 2015 MHSAA Football Playoffs – presented by the Michigan Army National Guard – on cable or satellite via FOX Sports Detroit, can tune in live at 7 p.m. on their computer or handheld devices and follow these instructions:

On Your Desktop/Laptop Computer

  • Go to FOXSportsGo.com
  • Click on the “All Chs” menu at the bottom left of the page
  • Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”
  • Scroll to “MHSAA Football Selection Sunday” and enjoy the show 

On Your Handheld Device

  1. Download the free FOX Sports Go app from your store
  2. Click on the “All Channels” menu at the top of the app
  3. Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”
  4. Scroll to “MHSAA Football Selection Sunday” and enjoy the show

FOX Sports Detroit also will be the home for four live streaming games each week of the playoffs on the FOXSportsDetroit.com website and will carry all nine championship games from Detroit. The 8-Player Final on Nov. 20 and the Division 4 11-Player Final on Nov. 27 will be shown on a delayed basis, but shown live on FOXSportsDetroit.com; all other Finals will be live on FOX Sports Detroit.