Quote:If it's true that the coaches have created a "culture" as it's been suggested, then certainly.

 

I feel bad for the kids caught up in this who just want to play football and weren't involved.

 

I've experienced a bad league culture while helping coach my son in baseball, so I can hope the parents who don't want their kids around that culture are able to steer them to another team.

 

It's sad, but it almost takes this kind of incident to clean something up by exposing it.  If complaints fail to change a bad situation, parents can sometimes be powerless other than to steer their kids away from a particular school or league.  Then, a bad incident or attrition (low participation) may spark change.  These kids should be taught love for the game, sportsmanship, and most of all to have fun learning the game.  This kind of incident doesn't happen if you're teaching those things, and teaching them the right way (creating the right culture.)

 

Absolutely what the sport should be about at that age.

 

For me personally, I loved the NFL and the game from a very early age.  I played on my first YAFL team (Pop Warner) in the 6th grade and played every season up to and through High School.  It was all about not only sportsmanship, but competition overall.  In my personal opinion, one important lesson isn't being taught at a young age, that being that there are winners and losers not only in sports, but in life.  That's being taken away in today's PC society and I believe that this incident is a direct result of that.  Unfortunately a couple of young people (the suspended players) are going to learn that lesson the hard way if they are charged with a crime.

---