It's a Hallow's Eve Friday

It's been a ASD tradition to wish all 5 people that read this blog a happy and safe holiday weekend. I will continue that tradition although it appears a lot of people out there don't get it. Look, I'll be the first to admit I am not the sharpest apple slicer in the bin but dammit just because you do stupid things doesn't mean you should stop trying to be responsible. You would think a football player whose team was rocked by a dorm brawl last year would use some calculated restraint when it came to boozin' and wheelin', but no. The player is reinstated and might play this weekend. This is not a slam against MSU, because it is the norm everywhere.

We are taught at a young age that the world is cut and dry, black and white (not in the racist sense), right and wrong. How foolishly idealistic we treat our children. Maybe it's done to save what innocence they have left but rest assured when little Johnny starts playing high school sports, everything changes. College educations, crazed parents, and most of all dolla$ become involved. As Nicky Santoro said, "dollars, always about the dollars." Dollars might not be the end of all the means, but money is the most significant embodiement of everything we pretend to hate about sports but at the same time glorify. You're the coach of a team, your best player steals some clothes, gets pulled for a DUI, or gives his girlfriend the back of his hand, do you sit him? If we could sit on a throne like Solomon then the call is easy; based on the kind of society we want to be, the kid sits, thusly gets punished and learns a valuable lesson.

But it's not that simple. Coaches have an innate desire to win, plus everyone railing against them if they don't. They also have much more to lose. In some cases their reputation and a nice plump paycheck are hanging in the balance, so you think they care what some pencil-pushing fatass with an online column thinks if they let a kid play. Sports is an opportunity for us to be hypocrites of the highest order. How can they let a kid play?! Then when your team has a troublemaker you turn around and defend him. I would never act in such a immoral manner! Yes you would and you do in your everyday life. In your office, with your neighbors, and your kids. It's only a game! No, not only because think about how seirously you take beerleague softball game, your pick-up game at the Y, or that family version of Wii-tennis or scrabble.

So by all means, go out and do something stupid this weekend. Can you please just try and make sure you don't do it while holding responsibility for other lives in your hands?

Chris Rainey's Jack-o-Lantern via