If there’s one thing I hate in professional sports, it’s when a team that’s on the receiving end of a vicious-ass beating pads their stats in garbage time. Now, why do I despise this so much? For one, because the opposing team clearly has taken their foot off the gas in order to rest their starters and the losers are taking blatant advantage by trying to hide the fact they got cleaned up filling up the box score. Two, because if the winning team keeps running up the scoreboard, it’s frowned upon as poor sportsmanship—even though the other team is still competing like hell for a moral victory.
On Sunday, I took great joy in watching the Los Angeles Rams obliterate the Houston Texans. From the second the game started, it was utter destruction until I turned it off in the fourth quarter with the Rams up 38-0. So imagine my disgust and surprise when I checked the box score this morning and saw the final score was 38-22. How in the hell did a team that was getting the soul snatched out of its chest on live television score 22 points in the fourth quarter? Oh, that’s right; because the Rams were kind enough to stop tap-dancing on the Texans’ corpse.
That shit is wack.
It’s for reasons like this why I’m a huge proponent of running up the scoreboard in blowouts, and why I empathize with Los Angeles’ own Inglewood High, who caught the wrath of the internet over the weekend after committing the unpardonable sin of being a really good football team.
On Friday, Inglewood High faced off against neighboring Inglewood Morningside and it was a glorious sight to behold. Because as USA Today and the Los Angeles Times report, not only did quarterback Justin Martin help orchestrate one of the greatest massacres in the history of high school sports by throwing 13 (!!!!!) touchdown passes, but Inglewood High put icing on their 106-0 cake by attempting a two-point conversion while up 104-0.
“It was a classless move,” Morningside coach Brian Collins fumed on Saturday.
It’s also important to note that Inglewood High scored 59 points in the first quarter alone and head coach Mil’Von James refused to put any backups in the game. Of additional note, a running clock wasn’t used to alleviate the searing pain of annihilation until the second quarter.
In the aftermath of this bloodbath, everyone from concerned parents to the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section is wondering why the mercy rule wasn’t imposed considering the increased risk of injury for so many star players who are already committed to college football programs—oh, and the score.
“The CIF Southern Section expects that all athletic contests are to be conducted under the strictest code of good sportsmanship,” the CIF-SS said in a statement. “A score of 106-0 does not represent these ideals. The CIF-SS condemns, in the strongest terms, results such as these. It is our expectation that the Inglewood administration will work towards putting in place an action plan so that an event such as this does not repeat itself.”
It sounds like shit is about to get really real though, with the Inglewood Unified School District announcing that it will be launching an investigation into what transpired.
“We at the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) are saddened beyond words by the events that transpired at the football game Friday between Inglewood and Morningside high schools,” IUSD wrote in a statement. “We will conduct a full investigation and take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that a similar outcome never happens again under an IUSD athletic program.”
I don’t wanna be that guy, but where was this energy when WNBA legend Lisa Leslie was playing for Morningside back in 1990 and put up 101 points in 16 minutes? If you don’t wanna get embarrassed on the field or the court, the solution is simple: Stop them. Otherwise, let these kids cook. Handing out participation trophies benefits nobody, though admittedly, Inglewood High’s coach did himself zero favors by putting that many points on the board.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.