Rivals cooperate on touchdown for player with Down syndrome

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Stories like this help restore my faith in humanity...............................a little.

http://www.kansascity.com/703/story/1452971.html

Rick Reilly wrote about a similar situation in SI about three or four years ago that made me a little weepy.

God bless the players and coaches involved with this act of kindness.

Oh, and here's the video:

http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=6217426

 

[maildude]

Great stuff. Should be a movie. :thumbsup:

 

[D-rock]

This might not be a popular thing to say, but any time a situation like that happens I find it highly unethical in competitive sports. It damages the very integrity of the sport. It's almost as bad those situations where one team lets a person score or lets a defensive get a stop so they can get a record they wouldn't otherwise would have gotten. If you want to help make a feel good moment there are other ways to do it. Set up an unofficial recreation of that moment after the game or something similar. Or even better just teach an important life lesson that reality is tough but that doing well in a game isn't that important in the vast meaning of life. That would be a much better thing to do than what happened. This is even worse than people that want to give everybody a trophy no matter how badly they do to make them feel good.

I know one thing. If I was ever on a team, and was told to let the other team score for whatever reason, (Unless it was one of those very extremely rare instances where it was tactically advantageous for my team to do so.) I would quit the team right then and there in disgust.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

On the contrary, D-rock. I think the players on both sides exemplify the true nature of sportsmanship. I'm sure there were several players on the opposing team who were thinking :wtf: but they overcame their misgivings and allowed a child with special needs to live out a dream scenario.

This event will be remembered by Matt for the rest of his life. The coaches came to an understanding that did not affect the outcome of the game and turned this gracious act into a sublime moment for people around the country.

Their selflessness is something that can put the debate over health care, the bail out and a whole myriad of national problems in the back of our minds for just a little while. We can think of the happiness of a community and a special young man whose simple wish to participate in a game was granted and then exceeded when he scored his teams only touchdown.

 

[Ace Bandage]

This might not be a popular thing to say, but any time a situation like that happens I find it highly unethical in competitive sports. It damages the very integrity of the sport. It's almost as bad those situations where one team lets a person score or lets a defensive get a stop so they can get a record they wouldn't otherwise would have gotten. If you want to help make a feel good moment there are other ways to do it. Set up an unofficial recreation of that moment after the game or something similar. Or even better just teach an important life lesson that reality is tough but that doing well in a game isn't that important in the vast meaning of life. That would be a much better thing to do than what happened. This is even worse than people that want to give everybody a trophy no matter how badly they do to make them feel good.

I completely agree. Yes, I understand it's a feel good moment. But it's only the third game of the season. They have quite a few games remaining. Isn't this kid going to beg for even more playing time now he scored the only TD for his team? Someone is going to spoil this for him before the year is out. These special considerations don't do anything to help this young man down the line. Scenarios like this won't play out later in life in the real world either.

 

[maildude]

If you want to help make a feel good moment there are other ways to do it. Set up an unofficial recreation of that moment after the game or something similar.

It wouldn't have felt the same way for the kid, though.

 

[Patrick_S]

I can´t wait for the follow up to this story. The one where the kid have gone on a wild killing spree after someone have let him know that what he thought was a great sporting achievement in reality was just theatre. If they wanted to do something nice for the kid they should have let him play for real, this is just ridiculous. I have no idea why the hell they would even have a mentally handicapped kid on the team, they obviously have no intention to ever let him play.

 

[iv6789]

“It’s not necessarily about winning or losing,” said McCamy, a second-year coach who played college football at Missouri. “Obviously up in Maryville we lost the game. The end result, we lost the game, but when we went away, we were all kind of winners.”

This is exactly what I wanted to hear in a high school football game. I'm all for competitiveness and the spirit of the game, but sometimes humanity and compassion need to take precedent. If only that translated into real life more often than not, we'd all live a lot happier.

I know one thing. If I was ever on a team, and was told to let the other team score for whatever reason, (Unless it was one of those very extremely rare instances where it was tactically advantageous for my team to do so.) I would quit the team right then and there in disgust.

And that would be a huge douche move. For fuck's sake, it's a high school football game. Maybe 5 of these kids will play college ball and most likely zero will play beyond that.

As for the quote about being only the third season of the game. Who's to say they will have the opportunity to try this later in the season. Let's pretend they wait until the last game. They still don't have a shot at playoffs, but they're only losing 7-3. Do you go ahead and let the kid score the winning goal? Doubtful. No other coach is going to let you get the win with that. This was a perfect opportunity to let a kid, for all intents and purposes didn't know it was staged and probably won't figure it out, live out a dream. Will he bug his coach more? Probably. But that coach has to deal with that. Not the rest of us. So why do you care?

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

Enjoy a little rep, Dropjaw. I forgot I already did that.

 

[JordanRules]

It was all about letting that kid have the greatest moment of his life. Something he will remember always. I think it is fantastic!

 

[STDiva]

I don't understand how someone can be opposed to this.

 

[Will E Worm]

This might not be a popular thing to say, but any time a situation like that happens I find it highly unethical in competitive sports. It damages the very integrity of the sport.

I agree, but then again it's High School.

Why is he on the team? Are people allowed to tackle him?

This reminds me of the time they had to put a girl on a male football team.

I can't stand political correctness.

 

[meesterperfect]

anybody who would have a problem with this is just being ridiculous
they were winning 46-0????????
they let the kid score.
so what????
So they gave an advantage to a kid who was dealt a bad card.
I think its a great thing.
why, because it made that kid feel great, and he deserves it.

its not the same at all for example benching a high school athelete for kicking ass on the field or court to spare the feelings of the other team, which is wrong.

this is a good thing