This weekend, I was at the school I attended from grades 6 through 13 to mark the 35th year since graduation for my class. I hadn't been back for what I first knew as Old Boys Weekend (now Ridley Association Weekend) since 2001. When I do go back, I always enjoy time spent in the beer tent casually watching - but watching - First Team Football play UCC or TCS or SAC on Saturday afternoon while reconnecting with old friends and faculty. The beer tent was still there, as was the reminiscing with old friends but guess what? Ridley has no football team now and hasn't for about 7 years. The program was deemed to be too expensive but with the school being fully 50/50 coed and with increasing concern about injuries (and concussions and related issues in particular), student interest in the football program was declining to the point where it was becoming difficult to field a team. So, they canned it.
I discussed this briefly with one of my class-mates who was actually the quarterback of the Ridley football team in my senior year (and who I watched being inducted into the new Ridley Athletic Lives of Distinction before lunch on Saturday), I figured that he wouldn't be pleased to see the football program scrapped. But he actually agrees with the decision as he now considers that the risk of serious injury to 16, 17 and 18 year-old young men just can not be justified, at least not at Ridley. Fair enough, I guess but the reunion isn't the same for me without the football game. Hopefully, I'll adjust in time for our 40th in five years.
I know that other high schools of various sizes in Ontario have moved on from their football programs for various reasons, but the trend doesn't bode well for the future of the sport on this side of the border anyway. In the US, I suspect that the move away from high school football will also take hold but it will be slower and less widespread, particularly in the South. The tradition of high school football on Friday nights in the US will undoubtedly hang on for a long time but participation rates in junior football are now in decline and I don't see that changing in the long term as we continue to learn more about brain injuries.
On a much more positive note, the Bills broke into the win column in a big way yesterday at a sun-drenched New Era Field (which I firmly believe should be called New Era Field at Ralph Wilson Stadium, allowing the Pegulas to collect their naming revenue while still honouring the franchise's founder). The team responded to the urgency of avoiding an 0-3 start with strong performances registered on both sides of the ball and on special teams which contributed a touchdown after a costly error by Arizona's long snapper. As Rex Ryan said afterward, "I don't know if anyone needed a win worse than we did".
So the Bills clearly performed well against what was last year a top NFC team. Great. But as Mike Schopp pointed out on WGR after the game, throughout the 16 year playoff drought, the team has certainly won some games - usually enough to fall just short of a wildcard spot. Remember, as Jerry Sullivan of the Buffalo News pointed out a few years ago, Dick Jauron used to string up 7-9 seasons like Christmas lights on his house. The question is: can the team now take its success from yesterday and win in New England next week? If they can, at 2-2, they would have a shot at ending the drought but, if they can't beat the Patriots without Tom Brady next Sunday, at 1-3, it seems that the playoff drought will be so much more likely to continue.
Tonight's Monday Night Football game between the Falcons and the Saints will have some stiff competition starting half an hour after kick-off as the first Presidential debate is set to go at 9pm. The campaign has been so bizarre up to now that predicting the impact of the debates on its trajectory feels very difficult indeed. The only thing which seems clear is that ratings for this first debate will be much higher than usual, regardless of how compelling the football game is.
Key questions leading into tonight's debate include: Will Hillary come out swinging? Will Trump be rattled? And perhaps most importantly, will tonight's moderator, NBC New anchor Lester Holt, call out either of the candidates should they say things which are obviously not true? An audience of more than 100 million is expected to tune in to see. I predict that both candidates will be more reserved than expected and that many viewers will flip back to the game after a short time.
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