THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

How would you feel if they played the game, but Washington Prep started the game trailing by 7?

I suppose I see this differently from the scorecard rule, since not receiving game film could be detrimental to a team’s on-field performance.  My issue is the Draconian nature of the punishment...it’s highly non-proportional to the nature of the offense.

This may come as a surprise to you, Tango, but high school football teams are unable to employ scouting departments.

Maybe the penalty should be different, but this is a real issue of competition, and there has to meaningful censure.

I wonder if the sky would have fallen if someone had just said “why don’t you go get the film, and bring it here.  I’ll wait.”

Greg, this is a high-stakes football game, where the world depends on everything running on time, and if you can’t do it, then you must disqualify the kids who had no control over any of the actions.

Remember, football is about the adults, and the kids just happen to be the players, much like the sneaker builders in China.

Well, Greg, they kind of did:
“… an eventuality that was made more infuriating by City Section assistant commissioner John Aguirre’s exhaustive efforts to ensure that Washington did bring game tape to the meeting; according to the Times, the assistant commissioner called Washington football coach Cornell Ward multiple times to arrange the exchange at any time that would be convenient for a representative of the program.”

And instead they show up with no film. If you think the rule is important, you have to penalize them there.

Why stop at forfeit?  Why not banish for a year?

As always, it is pointless to criticize a rule without proposing how the rule should be changed, or arguing that the rule should not exist at all.

Obviously, tape exchange is important to the people who are most involved with the sport at that particular level.  Whether the penalty for failure to comply should be forfeit (or suspension) is arguable, but what should the rule be? 

My suggestion:  at 10 different points of its own choosing during the game, the offended team may have a 15-yard dead ball penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct assessed against the offending team.

Someone already offered that you have a 7-point penalty.

There’s plenty of rules you can offer that doesn’t require a forfeit from the high school players, because their coaches scr-wed up.  The coaches are a SUPPORT staff to the kids. 

You make the penalty proportionate to the infraction.  How valuable is it to give out the film?

At the minimum, if a team refuses or declines to give tape, then the other team can also refuse (after of course validating that they had the tape ready to give).  Now, they are more equal, but at the same time, you have to penalize the offending team.

There are plenty of standard penalties to give out.  Unsportsman-like conduct penalties (one or multiple).  You can force the clock on them (less time for them to snap, and you give opponents more time for them to snap).

You can give them 15-yard penalty preceding each kickoff, or after every kick-return.

There’s literally a million options you can create, before offering the millionth and one option of forfeiture.

You create a system of penalties that the coaches in the league can agree to, WHILE LETTING THE KIDS PLAY.

It’s ridiculous to make the kids forfeit.