See Salih Pass, Drew Catch, Records Fall
October 16, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Detroit Cesar Chavez quarterback Omar Salih and receiver Nate Drew threw themselves into the MHSAA and national record books Friday.
Salih completed 28 of 45 passes for 674 yards and nine touchdowns in a 64-41 win over Mayville. Drew caught 16 of those passes for 456 yards and seven scores.
The yardage and touchdown totals for both are MHSAA records, and Drew's yardage also tied the national record for one game.
We've cut and clipped together those seven touchdown passes. See below:
Football Follies
October 7, 2014
Notice reached the MHSAA office of a so-called “2014 Michigan Youth Football Classic” that invites youth league teams to “a great weekend of youth tackle football.” For $450 per team, youth football teams will bang bodies for two days – Nov. 8 and 9 – with each team guaranteed at least three games. Three!
No level of football but this – for the youngest players who have the most vulnerable skulls – allows the idiocy of three games in a weekend. Most limit competition to a maximum of one game in a week!
In my opinion, this isn’t a football classic. It’s child abuse.
I wish the foolishness would stop there, but even an organization called USA Football seems to have lost its head. Initially and mostly with funding from the NFL, USA Football was focused on teaching youth football coaches and players safe blocking and tackling techniques. Good.
But now this pseudo-national governing body for amateur football is planning events for various age groups that will extend tackle football practices and games throughout what used to be an off-season. Multiple competitions in tackle football are scheduled for high school age players in January, February and July of 2015.
At a time when professional, college, school and Pop Warner football are all reducing contact during practices in-season, USA Football wants to expand the contact experience out of season. It makes about as much sense as three games in a weekend.