Bounty scandal hits youth sports

Many sports fans, former players, and commentators were very upset when the NFL exposed a bounty program run by the New Orleans Saints. I'm going to be very blunt here. Some of the smartest sports people I know said some of the most irresponsible things when the story broke. "Goodell's ruining the game!" "Football's going soft!" "Football is about big hits!" Any of those ring a bell? Anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars were reportedly put up by players and coaches for delivering hits that would injure opposing players.

Again, the peanut gallery found very little wrong with this. Fine. What if bounties were placed on kids? How does that suit you? Instead of hundreds or thousands of dollars, what i a coach paid a kid $20 or $30 to hurt your child? Is that part of the game too? This post is not a sermon from the mountaintop about a hypothetical situation. No, bounties are really being placed on kids. Have a look at the KGO-TV story below (email subscribers click here).

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Wow! That $20 or $30 these coaches were paying the kids won't even cover the co-pay of your child's specialist. It won't cover the X-Ray or the MRI your son will need on his ankle or knee. It won't cover the worry you feel when your child is up all night in pain because of the concussion-related headaches he keeps getting. Everything we do as adults trickles down to our children. While we may not care if a professional player suffers a concussion after a big hit, it becomes all too real on Saturday morning if our 14-year-old can't move after a tackle. Then, we find out the opposing coach paid another kid $20 to do it.

How would you feel if there was a bounty on your kid's head? How would you feel if your kids got paid for hurting another kid? We have to do better by our kids. It's our responsibility to be better examples. Their futures literally depend on it. Until next time...

Be a Good Sport!

-Sol