Post by lawman on May 21, 2007 15:09:08 GMT -5
www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070520/SPORTS03/705200329/1055/SPORTS
AHSAA did not write the book on football vs. religion
By Josh Moon
Football is a religion here.
How many times have you heard that line uttered as someone tried to explain why people in this state take the game far too seriously? Hundreds of times? Thousands?
Funny thing, though, when it comes to taking something too seriously, football doesn't hold a candle to religion. That's been made crystal clear this week.
In one of the goofiest moves ever, Alabama High School Athletic Association director Dan Washburn informed Hoover High officials that the AHSAA would not be approving a request that would allow the school's football team to participate in the third annual Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA challenge.
Washburn's reason for denying the request: "Sunday is a day of worship."
Now, I've looked through the AHSAA rulebook, and as of Friday, I still haven't found that rule. I'm thinking that maybe it isn't in the book yet since it had to have been created at some point after last Sunday -- when two AHSAA member schools participated in a baseball game. (I can only assume those players were worshiping during the slow parts of the game.)
OK, I'm being sarcastic here. There's no rule in the AHSAA rulebook that states games aren't played on Sundays because that's a day of worship. Washburn knows that.
He tossed the line out there in order to draw a few more people to his side of the debate. He didn't have a leg to stand on, since there was no written rule preventing Hoover from participating in the game, so he played the "God card." (The God card is similar to the race card, in that it's played way too much and rarely for genuine reasons.)
It's easy to understand why he wanted to deny Hoover's request. They're an easy bunch to hate, what with their fancy MTV show and high-priced coach. The natural reaction when they request anything, I'm sure, is to say 'No!'
That's fine. If you're the head of a high school association and can do whatever you want, go ahead, and punish them for just being them. That's your right. But don't go all wimpy and try to hide behind the church to do so.
I can only assume Washburn believed that the religion crazies in the state would outnumber the football crazies. I don't know if that was a good call or not. It seems to me that more people would've backed him up simply to see someone stick it to Hoover. With his comments, he's basically made it a 50-50 whining match between two groups the rest of us would prefer stayed well out of the public eye.
Instead, we've been bombarded by these nuts over the last week, as the opposing crazies have carried out a heated debate over the topic. All the while, the normal people have watched in amazement.
(By "normal people," I'm referring to the 90 percent of people in this state who have the uncanny ability to balance their love of football and their religious faith within their everyday lives. These "normal people" are still good fans and they're faith is just as strong as that of the nuts. They just don't feel the need to prove to the world every single day how great their loyalty is or how much religion they have.)
Whether Washburn was right or wrong is not a debatable subject. He was wrong. It's that simple. For millions of people, Sunday is not a day of worship. For some, Saturday is that day. For others, it's every day. For others, it's no day.
You see the problem?
Think about this for a minute. Let's say a religious group -- the Moon Worshipers (Hey, if that Hubbard guy can make one up about aliens and volcanoes, I think I'm well within reason here.) -- get together, form themselves a nice little coalition and become big political players. Suddenly, you've got Moon Worshipers on every board in every city and they're appointing other Moon Worshipers to positions in various groups, such as the AHSAA. The Moon Worshipers hold their religious services on Friday nights and would like to see that day deemed a "day of worship" and have all games canceled.
Would you be OK with that?
Of course you wouldn't. There would be an uproar like we haven't seen since "The Dukes of Hazzard" was canceled.
And why would so many be upset?
Simple. Because a particular religious group was attempting to force its ways on nonbelievers.
Why this fact is so hard to understand when it's your religion doing the forcing, I don't know.
Now, before I get 8,000 e-mails attempting to explain all of this away by informing me of how this country was founded on Christian ideals, save them. It wasn't. It was founded on one of the greatest ideas ever -- religious freedom. You can worship what you want when you want where you want and the guy next door to you is free to do the same.
That means you can't dictate what an entire public school football team does based solely on the practices of one religion.
It's wrong every single time no matter which religious group is trying it -- even if it's the Moon Worshipers.
Josh Moon is a sportswriter for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached at jmoon@gannett.com.
AHSAA did not write the book on football vs. religion
By Josh Moon
Football is a religion here.
How many times have you heard that line uttered as someone tried to explain why people in this state take the game far too seriously? Hundreds of times? Thousands?
Funny thing, though, when it comes to taking something too seriously, football doesn't hold a candle to religion. That's been made crystal clear this week.
In one of the goofiest moves ever, Alabama High School Athletic Association director Dan Washburn informed Hoover High officials that the AHSAA would not be approving a request that would allow the school's football team to participate in the third annual Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA challenge.
Washburn's reason for denying the request: "Sunday is a day of worship."
Now, I've looked through the AHSAA rulebook, and as of Friday, I still haven't found that rule. I'm thinking that maybe it isn't in the book yet since it had to have been created at some point after last Sunday -- when two AHSAA member schools participated in a baseball game. (I can only assume those players were worshiping during the slow parts of the game.)
OK, I'm being sarcastic here. There's no rule in the AHSAA rulebook that states games aren't played on Sundays because that's a day of worship. Washburn knows that.
He tossed the line out there in order to draw a few more people to his side of the debate. He didn't have a leg to stand on, since there was no written rule preventing Hoover from participating in the game, so he played the "God card." (The God card is similar to the race card, in that it's played way too much and rarely for genuine reasons.)
It's easy to understand why he wanted to deny Hoover's request. They're an easy bunch to hate, what with their fancy MTV show and high-priced coach. The natural reaction when they request anything, I'm sure, is to say 'No!'
That's fine. If you're the head of a high school association and can do whatever you want, go ahead, and punish them for just being them. That's your right. But don't go all wimpy and try to hide behind the church to do so.
I can only assume Washburn believed that the religion crazies in the state would outnumber the football crazies. I don't know if that was a good call or not. It seems to me that more people would've backed him up simply to see someone stick it to Hoover. With his comments, he's basically made it a 50-50 whining match between two groups the rest of us would prefer stayed well out of the public eye.
Instead, we've been bombarded by these nuts over the last week, as the opposing crazies have carried out a heated debate over the topic. All the while, the normal people have watched in amazement.
(By "normal people," I'm referring to the 90 percent of people in this state who have the uncanny ability to balance their love of football and their religious faith within their everyday lives. These "normal people" are still good fans and they're faith is just as strong as that of the nuts. They just don't feel the need to prove to the world every single day how great their loyalty is or how much religion they have.)
Whether Washburn was right or wrong is not a debatable subject. He was wrong. It's that simple. For millions of people, Sunday is not a day of worship. For some, Saturday is that day. For others, it's every day. For others, it's no day.
You see the problem?
Think about this for a minute. Let's say a religious group -- the Moon Worshipers (Hey, if that Hubbard guy can make one up about aliens and volcanoes, I think I'm well within reason here.) -- get together, form themselves a nice little coalition and become big political players. Suddenly, you've got Moon Worshipers on every board in every city and they're appointing other Moon Worshipers to positions in various groups, such as the AHSAA. The Moon Worshipers hold their religious services on Friday nights and would like to see that day deemed a "day of worship" and have all games canceled.
Would you be OK with that?
Of course you wouldn't. There would be an uproar like we haven't seen since "The Dukes of Hazzard" was canceled.
And why would so many be upset?
Simple. Because a particular religious group was attempting to force its ways on nonbelievers.
Why this fact is so hard to understand when it's your religion doing the forcing, I don't know.
Now, before I get 8,000 e-mails attempting to explain all of this away by informing me of how this country was founded on Christian ideals, save them. It wasn't. It was founded on one of the greatest ideas ever -- religious freedom. You can worship what you want when you want where you want and the guy next door to you is free to do the same.
That means you can't dictate what an entire public school football team does based solely on the practices of one religion.
It's wrong every single time no matter which religious group is trying it -- even if it's the Moon Worshipers.
Josh Moon is a sportswriter for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached at jmoon@gannett.com.