COMMENTARY – FOOTBALL’S BACK

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)

The CFL got a three month headstart. Now football is REALLY back whatwith U.S. College, Canadian University, Junior, High School and, right around the corner, the NFL.

And you’re going to have to help me with this …

It’s no secret that I’m from the Old School and the jury is out whether that’s the way to do things anymore.

So please tell me who these days gets to draw the line between what’s right, and what’s wrong?

Let me explain.

On Saturday the Western Mustangs opened the OUA (Ontario University Athletics) football schedule with an 83-0 pasting of the York Lions. It was the largest margin of victory in Mustangs history.

Are the suits and tall foreheads convening today to discuss instituting a Mercy Rule in USports because the York players got embarrassed so bad?

Just checking, and am only half-kidding.

On the other hand, in the NFL, two games were stopped this weekend in the second half because players were carted off the field. The coaches met on-field and agreed to scrap the game. Sure they were only preseason games and had this been the regular season they likely would’ve played on.

Or would they?

It’s traumatic to see your teammate injured and stretchered off the field. We know this now in the world of trauma recovery. But for decades players have adhered to the adage, “The show must go on”. 

See why I’m confused? I’m trapped somewhere between trying to evolve with this changing – ‘Player Safety’ – world, and the world I was brought up in where we had to “suck it up”.

Which one’s right?

This is why I tell you all the time that I’m truly happy to not be in the arena anymore because the sidelines and rules have been blurred and no one really knows who’s making the calls. God bless those who are.

But I certainly don’t regret the Old School upbringing.

Nothing scares me anymore and you can be darned sure that nothing surprises me either.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, YouTube Live & Podcast)