Nov 5, 2014 4 min read

It happens every year.

Some youth football team or its coach or school gets in dutch because the team scored too many points against a hapless opponent. But it’s really gotten ridiculous in one Georgia town, if the team parents’ account is accurate.

According to a report from WGCL-TV in Atlanta, parents of players on the Black Knights pee-wee team said the squad was hit with a $500 fine and its coach suspended for a week because the Knights scored more points than permitted under the Gwinnett Football League’s “mercy rule,” which like all such rules is aimed at discouraging superior teams from running up scores on lesser opponents, but in reality punishes better teams and their players.

In this case, the Knights were leading the Collins Hill team 32-0 late in a recent game when an 8-year-old Knights player, Elijah Burrell, intercepted a pass and did what not only came naturally to him, but what he was taught to do: run it into the end zone for a touchdown. That gave the Knights a 38-0 lead and exceeded the league-imposed maximum lead of 33 points.

Hence, the punishments the parents said were levied by the league.

It should have been a moment of celebration for young Elijah. Instead, the league is telling him he did something wrong. Instead of following what he was taught by his coaches, he apparently should have reverted to what he most likely was instructed to do if he ever finds himself on fire: stop, drop and roll.

Said Knights football mom Chando John, “How do I explain to an 8-year-old kid that your coach has been suspended because your teammate unintentionally scored? It is hard having an 8-year-old in flight to think of everything everybody has said, other than ‘I need to make a touchdown.'”

Elijah’s mother, Brooke Burdett, said the Knights even attempted to atone for their “transgression.” The next time they had the ball, they tried to deliberately toss easy interceptions toward the Collins Hill players, but those players refused to catch the passes.

The president of the football league said the reason for the fine is being misrepresented. He said it’s the result of Knights players lying on the ground and mocking members of the other team. Perhaps the youngsters thought the only way to allow their opponent to score was to fall to the turf and lie there like corpses.

But if there’s any mockery, the ridiculous mercy rule is really to blame.

Very few coaches at the peewee level are going to deliberately humiliate an opposing team of young children. Those who do have to live with themselves, and coaches of teams who think their kids are being abused have the option to pull them off the field and forfeit.

It always seemed unfair to us that athletes, particularly once they reach the high school level, are subjected to mercy rules, even something as relatively benign as instituting a running clock in the second half of games that are out of hand, the system employed by high school football here in Western Pennsylvania.

In most athletic pursuits, there are winners and there are losers. Sometimes the winners are much, much better than the losers. Why should they be punished because they are more skilled or dedicated, or because their coaches do a better job? As many coaches said, if you don’t want to be on the short end of a lopsided score, play better. Lesser teams shouldn’t have the expectation the other squad is going to lie down for them, perhaps literally in some cases.

And here’s some more advice for youngsters, not regarding sports, but life itself: There will almost always be someone who is better than you at any chosen pursuit, sometimes by a pretty wide margin. The best thing you can do in those situations is give it your best and work to improve your own performance. Don’t expect the other guy or gal to slack off so you can catch up.