Two teams – one on the road toward a state championship, one on
the road to a league championship. Both had to wrestle with the moral dilemmas of an
athletic code signed by athletes and their parents and face the suspension of six key
players at the deciding points on those roads.
One story we know all too well. It played across our sport pages
last week leaving everyone saddened. It was just a prank, a dumb thing to do, it had
nothing to do with football, many agreed.
The other story few know. The boys were not 18 and there were no
arrests. It involved the sharing of a bottle of beer. A dumb thing to do that had nothing
to do with sports. However, with the game that would clinch the league championship on the
line, the coach said he did not expect the players to play and their signatures to a code
of honor were much more important than a game.
To put all the anguish and discussion and emotion of those two
situations into a paragraph each surely oversimplifies or illuminates, depending on
one’s view. I would agree this is not about sports. It is about honor.
The most important things in our lives depend solely on honor –
the validity of our education, our ability to work, our commitment to our spouses, homes
and children. My Dad used to make the point honor and trust were fickle things – one
could spend years building them, and in an instant, one thing, they are gone. They can
return of course, but not as quickly as they leave. They have to be rebuilt.
I am sure all in both situations thought deeply and carefully about
how to handle things. All are good people with good intentions. I can see the point of
parents having the right to discipline their children as they see fit regarding events
outside of school and I know the athletes in both situations were called to account.
I just liked the cleanness honoring the code brought. Rather than
responsibility being passed around like a hot potato as it was last week, it was firmly
held. No one had to look the other way, no one had to rationalize. In the end, both teams
ended up with a loss, so the results were the same – or were they?