The Right Calls?

I've been watching football games all my life... seriously.  When I was four years old, I was in a beauty pageant.  I won over the judges by leading a cheer... the pageant was on a Friday night.  I knew I was supposed to be in a stadium.

I've seen my share of bad calls and I've also seen my share of calls that maybe gave us an advantage.  No game is perfect because let's be honest, it involves a bunch of testosterone driven teenagers.  Most of the coaches and refs are guys who played and just hate giving up on the game.  And that's ok... because that's one of the reasons I like watching games so much, I'm a cheerleader who never grew up.

I've watched this group of kids grow up. I cheer loud when they run or catch or make a killer tackle.  I get mad at them and mumble under my breath when they do something stupid.  I've got their back even though a lot of them have no idea who I am.  But I'll admit, I have my favorites. Kids I really have known all their life. and then there's Brayton.

Brayton has been a sight since he was born.  He was always mischievous. You never knew what to expect with him.  Even as a little boy, he looked for meanness to get into, and you knew he was doing it because of his sneaky smile.  He got his nickname, T.O., because of his bad attitude during a two hand touch family football game one Thanksgiving... he was mad because Jordan wouldn't get him the ball, threatened to quit, and Walace told him to stop acting like Terrell Owens. The nickname stuck.  The attitude can still be found, sometimes.  But the kid loves football.  And he's good at it.  He makes me smile to watch him burst through the line to get at the quarterback of the other team.  I'm not able to hear what he says, but I'm pretty sure he's a good trash talker.  And that's ok, too...

There can't be any louder cheers than when Brayt busts loose for a touchdown.  Last week, he had two. Tonight, he burst through that line and broke free.  As he crossed the line into the endzone, one of the members of the other team had his foot.  Brayton shook  his foot loose... that's all he did.  Shook the other kid off.  He then got kicked out of the game. 

To be honest, I'm amazed... I've seen Brayton act much worse.  Just a few plays earlier, a member of the other team drilled one of our players out of bounds, a flagrant personal foul, and he didn't get kicked out of the game.  I'm thinking the refs got this one wrong.  They proceeded to get things wrong. The first quarter took 40 minutes to play.  They threw flags right and left. 

There has to be a balance between letting kids play and being ridiculous. Tonight, I'm one disgruntled fan.  I wouldn't have a refs job for any amount of money, but I think if they are taking the responsibility, they should make every effort to get it right.  I just don't think that happened tonight. 

So Brayt, I'm still proud of you.  You've got a group of family crazy about you.  And you can bet we were yelling at the refs the rest of the game... because they need to call it both ways.  That's my say, for what it's worth.  Thanks for letting me vent =)