We'll take it.

In light of my previous post today, and this article from the Oregonian's online edition (http://www.oregonlive.com/sportsflash/college/index.ssf?/base/sports-11/1158615577227210.xml&storylist=college&thispage=1), I felt compelled to send the letter below to the Oregonian, as well as posting it here. I am not convinced I won't send it to the Pac 10 commisioner, the Big 12 commisioner and the University of Oklahoma's moronic president as well. I love amateur athletics, but quite frankly, I hate the culture the adults involved have created around it.

I vividly (Craig Moser was our kicker) remember the Crater (my high school) - Medford (the big, bad, hated, evil Black Tornado, as Medford only had one high school until 1985, not to say that I don't still despise the Black Tornado, but that's a different blog!!) football game my freshman year of high school, 1975. I was sick and unable to attend, but, of course, was listening on the radio. Medford was the terminal Goliath back in those days, and Crater (along with several others in the Southern Oregon Conference) were the Davids. Yet, we had a chance to win, AT THEIR FIELD, on a field goal right at the end of the game. We made it, but there was a flag on the play. The official said we had too many guys on the line. It was a bad call, as everyone would find out the next day when game film had been reviewed, and we lost the game. The next day in the paper, Medford's coach was quoted as saying, "Crater should have had the win, but we'll take it." We didn't have too many players on the line - we had done just what we were supposed to do - and our kick was good and we had indeed won the game. And it indeed is still in the record books today as a Medford win. That is just how it goes.

As I remember it, our players were heartbroken and angry, and rightly so. But when all the dust had cleared, all the tears had dried, and all the anger had dissipated, our team realized that there had been other blown calls, other missed opportunities, and other factors both within, and out of, their control, that were a part of playing that game. It became almost enough for each of them, and their fans, in our minds to know that, in reality, we had won that game. In reality, our field goal was good and the time had expired and Medford's coach was right, we should have had the win. But Medford got to take it. That was just the way it went, and here's a newsflash Sooners - that was just the way it went for you guys this past weekend. If the game really came down to just those two blown calls (and, again, this is probably for another blog another time, but if you're going to question two controversial calls, then shouldn't you really be questioning ALL the controversial calls, because if one of those goes the other way earlier in the game, then maybe the game isn't even on the line, or within being on the line, at the end? As my sixth man, Josh, says, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, then it would be Christmas everyday."), then yeh, you should have had the win. But guess what? We'll take it.

(My letter:

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of football games played all over the country, at every level, this past weekend. Subsequently, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of blown calls by officials. That's just part of the game and every fan knows it. We hate it, but we know it coming in. There were blown calls in the Duck / Sooner game before the two "crucial" ones at the end of the game, and they were blown on both sides of the ball. Isn't every call, blown or not, crucial? Can't the argument be made that every call, blown or not, affects the outcome of the game in some manner?

I am not sure how I feel about the suspension of the officials - I guess I am glad that wasn't my decision to make - but I certainly know how I feel about the University of Oklahoma president asking the Big 12 commisioner to pursue having the game eliminated from the record books and the officials suspended for the rest of the season. It is the same way I feel about amateur athletics (which, by the way, I absolutely love) in general: Wouldn't it be great if we could get rid of all the whining adults and just let the players play the game, and relish the opportunity they have to be playing, at whatever level that may be?)