It's Time to Stop the Insanity

Without fail, we hear about football players and coaches every year that die or end up hospitalized due to excessive heat.

Why is it football season starts in the hottest month of the year in Texas? Is it tradition? Is it because it just fits someones school year calendar better?

If you took the entire calendar year and said what is the one month you would start a sport where you wear a heat incubating uniform and are expected to sprint at full speed for short bursts and propel your body in to other players, you certainly wouldn't select the hottest month of the year would you? Yet that's what we expect of the young men in the state of Texas each year.

Football is portrayed as a macho, he-man sport and to complain or belly ache about anything, much less the heat, is just not accepted. Most kids age 15-18 have been taught to respect authority and do what they're told without resistance or questioning why. If you complain or question a coach you are not a "team player" and most likely end up doing "gassers" or "up-downs". I know in my football days that if my coach told me to run through a brick wall, I was going to try my darndest to do it, and without so much as a whimper.

We're putting at least two groups of people in a bad position. With the pressure coaches face to win, they are expected to whip their team in to shape, come heat, snow, rain, hell or high water. The players themselves face the pressure of complying with the coaches orders under extreme conditions, while facing everything else life throws at them at that age.

Parents are so proud to witness their son's football accomplishments, but shouldn't they have some input on their son's safety? Maybe it will take a group of parents marching on the UIL office to wake someone up.

How about moving moving the season back one month? Flip-flopping the football and baseball seasons? Moving start times back to 8 PM? There has to be someone associated with Texas high school football that is a lot smarter than I am who can figure this out. It's so miserable in Texas in August and early September that it's not even enjoyable to watch a football game, much less play in one. No doubt we'll hear of band members, cheerleaders and spectators who were overcome with heat exhaustion once the season begins.

The NFL and Colleges seem to do a much better job of protecting their players than we do our young men here in Texas. Notably, the Cowboys are in a dome right now. Is it because someone has an investment in them?

At the very least it should be mandated that all schools follow the recommendations of the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

UIL, coaches, administrators; it's time to STOP the insanity before one more person's life is lost.