By the Dashboard Lights

by Dave Friedli

11/30/06

Champions on the Field Only

They crowned them state champions two weeks ago. Around their town

they are heroes.

They will be lauded and remembered for their achievements on the

field.

For an entire year, they dominated their competition.

The football team went undefeated and beat some excellent teams

along the way.

Future teams at their school will point to the year the 2006 squad

made their way to Lincoln to play in the championship game in

Memorial Stadium, and those players will want to "do what they did".

Coaches will remember them as champions and tout their work effort

and their character.

They will be a team that is not forgotten.

I bet they won't think about the night they played a football game

at a visiting school and showed something about their true character.

At half-time, nearly half of the team made their way to a distant

edge of the football field and track complex and relieved themselves

along the fence.

Almost two dozen players, in view of every fan in attendance,

standing with their backs to those gathered to watch the game,

urinated.

This team may be the champion on the field, but this act is about

disrespect.

Perhaps society's standards have dropped so low that young men no

long feel a sense of shame in knowing hundreds of people are watching

them relieve themselves.

Perhaps this is what it takes to be a champion in today's world.

Maybe it is necessary to be this tough, with a single focus on being

a winner on the football field that being a public embarrassment is

inconsequential.

I struggle to believe a coach would have pride in a team which would

act in such a manner.

Facilities were available for use, but this team didn't take

advantage of them. Instead, the players made a statement of what kind

of players--and coaches--it was made of.

There was nothing discrete about the action. It was offensive and

distasteful. White jerseys with deep red numerals reflected in the

mercury vapor lights of the field.

Like an animal marking its territory, the players involved made a

statement of who they were.

This team lifted its collective leg and soiled its reputation in

front of hundreds of fans and the opposing players.

They might be champions on the field this year, but the medal around

their neck doesn't take away their thoughtless and disrespectful act.

True champions have character.

Sadly, half of the boys--not young men yet, apparently--wearing that

medal have yet to learn that basic life lesson.