"If I lose my honor, I lose myself." (Antony and Cleopatra)

.....Yesterday, Dwyer, a high school football team from Florida rated in the top ten in the country ventured to Ohio to play Glenville, another highly ranked team. It was the season opener for both of them. It was also televised nationally on ESPN. A very big day for every boy.

.....It was a hotly contested game worthy of both of these fine teams, and the final score was Glenville 26, Dwyer 22. But that doesn't tell the story. With a minute and a half left in the game a Dwyer receiver caught a ball in the end zone which would have won the game for Dwyer. However, the referee declared that the ball was caught out-of-bounds while everybody in Ohio could see that the kid caught the ball legally, and ESPN's replay confirmed it. But then Dwyer was down on the one yard line with about 10 seconds to play and the quarterback ran it in for the winning touchdown--a second time. However, the referee declared that the boy did not get into the end zone! ESPN's replay showed clearly that he succeeded in crossing the goal line, which would make the final score 28-26 in Dwyer's favor. Apparently, the refs did not cotton to having a high school team from South Florida winning a game from a high school in Ohio.

.....Now, Dwyer, by all accounts won this game twice--except for awful calls by the official. If I were the coach of Glenville, I would be embarrassed at having to be declared the winner of a game like that. I would absolutely have forfeited the game to make Dwyer the rightful winner. I don't want to hear (but probably will) that the "rules are rules". I didn't coach American "football"; I coached every other country's "football"; called soccer here. If an opposing team scored a legitimate goal that would have won the game for them, but was disallowed by a referee, (which never happened to me), I would definitely forfeit the game.

.....Honor to me is of greater importance than winning a game. We didn't win the game; it was handed to us as a gift. I wouldn't want to accept a gift like that. The boys on my team might not be happy about my decision, but I would try to make them understand what fair play in sports was all about. Recently, in a golf tournament, a player who would have been tied for the lead with a chance to win declared a two stroke penalty on himself for grounding his club in a sand trap which is against the rules of the game. This caused him to lose his opportunity to win a bagful of money. My dictionary defines honor thusly: "honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions." What is clearer than that?

.....These events prompted me to remember the lines spoken by the King in "Henry V"; "If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive."

I'm grateful that I never had to forfeit a game because it was the honorable thing to do. For someone who loves winning as much as I do, it would have been gut wrenching! So goes the glory of this world. "Sic transit gloria mundi".