I'm not generally an "I told you so" kind of guy but the railing I've done about Connecticut's affront to the game of football -- the CIAC's ludicrous 50-point rule -- stands up in light of New London's 51-2 win over Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech Saturday.
The game itself is being compromised and the rule must go. I have every confidence that it will.
If Jack Cochran's approach to the game of football offends anybody, drop a line to the New London athletic director or bring it up at the next school board meeting. All Cochran does is work harder than anybody else, and impose that work ethic on his young men, which will serve them well as they navigate the choppy waters of life.
Rather than my imparting the details of the "game" here, I suggest you read the superb article written by Owen Poole of the New London Day -- http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=a5848b0a-a72b-4513-8b2c-8d22471fee78 . The integrity of the great game of football has been impugned.
I don't hear anybody dissing Cochran when the subject turns to Mike McLeod. McLeod, a running back from New Britain who is in the process of rewriting the Ivy League record book, learned his football from Cochran and look where it's taking him?
Hey, I don't like to hear about games where a team wins by 50 or more points. I surely don't like to cover such games, which I was challenged to do some weeks during Cochran's four-year stint here.
I will say that something needs to be done with scheduling. I don't have all the answers, because what may be right for football isn't right for many of the other sports (I refer you to the senseless revamping of the CCC when schools of similar size refused to play New Britain).
I saw that Bristol Eastern played Norwalk this year so there are situations where teams from the CCC can play teams from the FCIAC. Maybe Greenwich, instead of traveling all the way to Naples, Fla., to find a challenge, can hook up with New London, although there is little for a Class LL team to gain by playing a Class S squad.
Perhaps the regaled Chargers of Ansonia could be convinced to leave their accomodating NVL slate to play a challenging game. I know the Northwest Catholic people are upset with Cochran over charges that he spied on their practices prior to their opening-day game, but it was a great game.
Yes, something needs to be done, but the 50-point rule must go and we need to put our heads together on how to fix Connecticut football.
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I have to agree with the fact that the 50 point rule has to go. What it set out to accomplish is not being accomplished. It was set up to spare the embarrassment of a team getting walloped But every time a New London team wins by 49 points, the game gets more press than it would have had it been by 80 because of this rule.
It has been suggested that they just stop the game after a team is up by more than 50 points. That makes more sense than tying to play out the rest of the game. Then a fiasco like what happened with New London and Tourtellotte in 2007 wouldn't have to happen.
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