It’s football pet peeves time

It’s that time of year again to write about some of my football pet peeves. I have high school, college, and professional football pet peeves.

Maybe someday I will write a book about the care and feeding of my pet peeves, but it would fill a book the size of War and Peace.

For my high school pet peeve, I mention one, shared by many.

Why do we have two state high school football  champions with two different divisions for each classification? I think former Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway once wrote on this subject. We really don’t have a true state champion.

The real answer is money. There is the argument about inclusion, but now we have more than one school qualifying for the playoffs in each school district. It used to be the district winner only. If we went back to that system, we could subtract one less week of playoffs and have one champion.

But there is a lot of TV money being made on these state championship games at AT&T Stadium.

FYI, band has a state champion only every other year. I never have understood that. Mr. Galloway, who lives in Aledo, has agreed with my quip that band is a contact sport in Aledo. 

The last time Aledo lost a playoff game was to South Oak Cliff three years ago when South Oak Cliff went on to win the state title in that 5A division. Last year, South Oak Cliff won a state title in their 5A Division and Aledo won a State title in its 5A division. Aledo and South Oak Cliff were in different 5A divisions and there was no chance of a rematch. This year the same may happen as South Oak Cliff and Aedo are in the state finals in two different 5A divisions, again.

I think a whole lot of people would like to see a rematch but it isn’t going to happen 

There are a lot of college pet peeves but I will pick one — the transfer portal. Players commit (a true oxymoron) to a college, but they can choose to transfer to another the next year. Some are now transferring many times. They may win a national title for one school by defeating an arch rival one year, bu, the next year they could defeat their current team if they transferred and played for the arch rival.

When Sonny Dykes left SMU to coach TCU, the player who played center for SMU and played against TCU the year before, was playing for TCU the next year against his old team, SMU. So much for the alma maters and loyalties. They move around now like professional baseball players move around  from  team to team.

There are a lot of professional football peeves but, the one I choose for now is the Ring of Honor of the Dallas Cowboys. The peeve is how people are chosen. The original Ring members were chosen by one man, the general manager, Tex Schramm. Now they are chosen by one man, owner Jerry Jones.

Other prestigious sports honors such as the various hall of fames are chosen by a variety of voters. For the Ring of Honor, one guy, Jerry Jones, gets to choose. He has the only vote. It is just his whim whenever, to choose someone.  I think the honorees that have been selected are deserving, but, when just one guy who owns the team, gets to choose, it doesn’t seem right.

I should probably let my pet peeves die, but they make life so interesting!