Political Correctness Runs Amok In State Championship Football Game

With time running out in the Massachusetts Division 4A championship game, Cathedral High's Matthew Owens ran the QB keeper. Rolling to his right, Owens blew through the defense and sprinted 56 yards for the go-ahead score. He handed the ball to the ref, and that's when he saw the yellow flag.

Owens had raised his left fist a brief moment as he crossed the 20 yard line. In the eyes of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association official working the game, he had celebrated and thus had taunted his opponent.

The play was called back with Cathedral penalized 15 yards. They would not score before time expired, and fell to Blue Hills by a score of 16-14. A senior, Owens's high school football career ended with a loss.

The rule is a new one, implemented just last summer. It's adapted from the NCAA's rulebook and forbids "unsportsmanlike conduct or any act that interferes with orderly game administration."

Now, safe to say, there will be much debate about how this rule should be enforced.

All we have to say, is the officials should have taken a page out of the NFL playbook and huddled together to discuss the play.   Did they really want to decide the championship over a kids hand in the air for one second (maybe less?).  If all the refs huddled together and reached consensus, so be it. But that’s not what they did. One guy made the call and changed the outcome of the game.

And one other thing: The opposing coach should have run onto the field and said “You can’t possible call that a penalty.”  Maybe he did, but, if he didn't, what a crappy way to win a championship game.   

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