The Lions tied the game with the Roswell Hornets. The rules state that there is no Overtime in a championship game, and that both teams become co-champions. It is really weird- no winner no loser. Actually no loser, just 2 winners. So you would think they would be happy, but everyone was feeling like it was 1/2 a championship, and disappointed to share the championship with another school. Do you always have to pre-fix your championship with the word "co"? Do you always have to qualify it? It certainly dampens the achievement, but it beats losing.
Roswell was winning 14-3 going into the 4th quarter. The Lions tied it up with just over 4 minutes left. When the announcer stated that both teams were to be co-champs, the crowd, unaware of the rule, went ballistic. The boys, instead of jumping up and down and celebrating (or crying) were walking around in a daze. It was pretty odd. I was afraid they were going to lose, just like the 1991 Braves did, so when I saw the 14-3 score, I figured it was over. I came back to look at the TV with one minute left and saw the score at 14-14! I was shocked! I assumed there would be sudden death, which always gives me agita. Then nothing happened and the announcer said both teams had won!
From the Gwinnett Daily Post, by Will Hammock
Sports Editor:
State policy kept them from fighting for an outright championship in overtime, but Armstrong (Lions Coach) said his team deserves the accolades of one that wins the title without sharing. After all, it was a GHSA policy that forced the deadlock. The players were just competing under those guidelines.
“They’re all happy,” Armstrong said of his players. “They realize they came charging back and they finished the game. They didn’t lose the game. We had the momentum going and if there was an overtime system, we felt like we had the momentum and could have won the game.”
Instead it was an unusual tie.
It was one of two in state title games on Saturday (the AA game also was a tie) that ended deadlocked, and it also left plenty of people at McEachern confused. The Roswell crowd immediately chanted for overtime, and were matched by the Lions’ faithful.
“I think a lack of information is what hurt the most,” Armstrong said. “If the announcer had made an announcement with a few minutes left about what happens if it’s tied, it would have helped inform people. I told our kids about it in practice, but I’m not sure a lot of them remembered.
“I don’t think any of the fans knew unless their kids told them. The biggest disappointment is there was no celebration. Our kids were a little better after we talked to them.”
Despite the outcome, Armstrong said he understands the GHSA’s policy on overtime.
“In basketball they play another period of time for overtime,” the coach said. “You don’t line up and shoot free throws. Basketball coaches don’t want to see that any more than I’d like to line it up on the 15 and see who can score. That’s not a true measure of how the game’s played. If you’re going to have a tiebreaker, it should be something like two, six-minute halves where each team has an opportunity to get the ball.”
As I said I do not know much about football, but I guess the feeling is that sudden death is not a true test of who is the better team. However, it is used all season long to decide tie games, so why not in the final game? A lot of people feel that this rule, which has been around since 1948, needs to be changed. I think the Georgia High School Football Association will be looking at it.
The stupidest thing I read in regard to this was on an AJC sports blog. A lot of comments blamed the tie and the no-overtime rule on "today's liberal feel-good parenting philosophy".
Actual Blog Comments:
"How come the state has overtime in the regular season but not the playoffs? Talk about backward but I guess that is Georgia for you. I know, it must be left wing liberals making the rules so everyone gets a trophy. That way nobody gets their feelings hurt if they lose"
" I know how i feel as a fan…disgusted, shocked, and absolutelu flabegasted that the “authorities’ could endorse such an idiotic rule. this is the same lame, liberal bozos that give us “social promotions” in academics…nobody is a failure…therefore nobody is a winner either…dumba**es!!!"
"Wow! What a debate. The fact is, that this rule is a terrible LIBERAL rule."
However in 1948, when this Georgia High School football rule was put into place, this parenting philosophy was absolutely unheard of. In fact the backlash against the "self-esteem" movement by many conservatives is really idiotic. Consider the reason for the self-esteem movement: In the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, it was considered okay to tell your kid he was a jerk, stupid, lazy, ugly and fat. Parents would tell us, and all children that they were worthless, stupid and would never amount to anything. They didn't do it out of maliciousness, they just didn't know any better. As a result a generation of drug addicted, alcoholic, overweight prozac popping adults emerged. It became eventually clear to some psychology experts that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell your kid he was an idiot to his face, that maybe you should build up your child's self esteem so that he would not grow up feeling worthless. This spawned the "self-esteem" movement that right wing talk show hosts despise. They seem to not know from whence it came. So many generations messed up their kids by calling them names creating complete basket case adults. Perhaps some programs do take it too far. But I remember when I first had a child reading a parenting book that said that if my child brings me a picture he made, instead of saying, "geez, what a piece of crap, the lines are all crooked, your art sucks" thereby crushing his spirit, I should say "wow that's great, I like they way you used those colors"! To find something positive in whatever they were working on. As one who continually had my spirit crushed, and who has major head problems due to it, I like the self-esteem movement. But let me say this 1948 rule in football is NOT related because in 1948 there was no such thing as "cooperative games" and "self-esteem"! It was just not considered fair to base the State Championship on kicking field goals.
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