Pussification of America Continues: Lawmakers Are Now Putting Limits on Full Contact Football Practices

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Gov. Jerry Brown announced Monday that he has signed a bill limiting full-contact football practices at middle and high schools in response to concerns about concussions, even as many teams already comply with the rules. Brown approved the bill, AB 2127, with the support of medical groups and the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees California high school athletics. Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, said his bill is motivated by parents worried about the risks associated with concussions, which include long-term brain damage and early onset dementia. Under the legislation taking effect in 2015, drills involving game-speed tackling are prohibited in the offseason. They are limited to 90-minute sessions twice a week the rest of the year. The rules apply to public, private and charter schools… Some lawmakers questioned whether the issue merits state regulation and whether the proposal puts students at a competitive disadvantage when competing against students in other states.

So to review: The world is in chaos.  The news is basically a real life version of Chapter 3 of a Tom Clancy novel.  A band of goons with a missile launcher in the ass end of the world is staring down the most powerful nations on Earth.  Tens of thousands of people are streaming across the border like orcs and we have no idea who they are or what in God’s name they’re bringing in with them.  The economy’s been in the same tank for ten years and we can’t begin to put a dent in the money we’ve borrowed.  So what are the politicians working on?  High school football practices.  They’re working day and night to find a solution to the question nobody asked: How can we save the youth of America from the scourge that is full-contact football practices.

If ever a bill was passed that proved once and for all how utterly out of touch the thieving weasels who run our country are, it’s this one. Start letting these clueless, ivory tower buttinskis start regulating football practices and you know who’ll suffer in the long run?  The kids.  Flat out.  As anyone who has the slightest clue – who’s ever spent a nanosecond coaching kids or watching a real practice being conducted – will tell you, the kids love full contact drills.  It’s what makes football fun for them.  Believe me in 11+ years of coaching I’ve never once heard a kid say “Can we skip tackling drills today?  I’d rather hit the sled or listen to you drone on and on about blocking assignments and 3-point stances…”  In the program I’ve been involved in, there was once a coach who hardly ever let his kids hit.  I’d see his team across the field standing there while he lectured them on fine points and his innovative playbook and all that crap and you could see in their faces it was like sitting through CCD for them.  And by the time they hit senior year of high school, there were only 4 of them still playing.  The rest quit because he made football boring.  Boys are like lion cubs on the savannah, rolling around biting and clawing at each other.  They want to play rough.  It’s fun for them.  Walk onto any practice field in America and say “You guys want to do some hitting and every kid who belongs out there is yelling “YEAAAHHH!!!”  You name the drill.  Angle drills.  Oklahomas.  One-on-ones.  Two-on-ones.  Open Field Tackles.  The Gauntlet.  Even Bull in the Ring, which is practically extinct by now.  Kids love them.  Outlaw this stuff and you’re not only taking the fun out of the game, you’re making the kids more susceptible to injuries in the actual games because they won’t have enough practice to learn how to do it right.

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But enough of my rant.  I’ll let the guy who said it best 100 years ago say it.  Teddy Roosevelt:  “Of all games, I like football best.  And would rather see my boys play it than see them play any other.  I have no patience for those who claim against it because it necessitates rough play and occasional injuries.  It is a good thing to have the personal contact about which the New York Evening Post snarls so much.  I would hundredfold rather keep the game as it is now – with the brutality – than give it up.” But I guess we don’t make politicians like him anymore. And it makes me weep for my country.  @JerryThornton1