Opinion
By Ray Wolf

There’s no doubt about it. Butte College has a great football team. The Roadrunners are fast, strong, intense and execute most of their plays to perfection. When it comes to being disciplined in carrying out their football assignments they perform extremely well.

Normally, I’d be writing about the football aspect of the game between the Butte College Roadrunners and the College of the Siskiyous Eagles, last Saturday. Instead, I find myself writing an opinion piece, but I suppose I should write a little about the football part.

Except for a few nice pass plays by the Eagles, Butte dominated nearly every part of the game, and beat COS 53-25. There, that about covers it. Check the end of the story for who scored for COS. Now, here’s the real story.

Although the Roadrunners put 53 points on the board, when it came to sportsmanship and class, they laid a giant goose egg—as in zip, zilch, nada.

It’s one thing to be a little cocky, and maybe even arrogant. After all, this is football—intense, tough, and at times down right mean. It’s played by tough young men that are hyper-jacked up for the game, and every play within the game. It’s not unusual to hear players talking smack to each other, especially when you get beyond the high school level.

The problem arises when the smack becomes taunting. That’s what Butte brought to the stadium—classless trash talk and taunting, as well as the occasional cheap shot. It didn’t take long for the game to deteriorate into a series of provocations and retaliations. Unfortunately for the Eagles, their retaliations cost them in the form of a break down of discipline and multiple penalties of the unsportsmanlike nature, which brings me to the officiating. Throughout the game, I kept thinking that as classless as the Roadrunners are, they’re pretty smart. They did a great job of playing the officials—baiting the Eagles and waiting for the officials to be their unwitting accomplices.

Oh sure, the Eagles deserved their penalties. They committed the acts. Where the officials failed was not taking control of the game right from the first taunt issued by Butte. Had they thrown flags for the taunts, the trash would have stopped. Then, all those penalties against COS likely wouldn’t have occurred, and we all could have enjoyed some good football instead of a virtual street fight.

Now, I can just hear several of you saying, “But Ray, taunts are just words. The Eagles should have risen above that and just played football.” Yes, they should have. They should have kept their composure. And, in an ideal world they would have.

The reality is that it’s bad enough to be getting your butts kicked on the field. Add in some trash talk and taunting by the opponent, and it’s pretty hard to maintain control. It’s frustrating, even more so when the officiating is one-sided in terms of the unsportsmanlike/personal foul penalties. I quit keeping track after a while, but as of the third quarter, I noted four against COS, and zero against Butte.

At one point, I heard an official tell a Butte player to, “Shut up.” That was in the fourth quarter. What a great job of taking charge by the official. Despite all the garbage going on right in front of him the whole game, he waits until the game is nearly history to do anything. And then he tells the player to shut up—how about using that yellow nose-blower—the one he should have used three quarters earlier. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t blame the official. Maybe Butte intimidated him.

Following the game, I talked with several local high school coaches. They were all disgusted by what they saw on the field. All but one put the blame entirely on the Butte coaching staff and players. The one exception noted that COS also engage in less than acceptable behavior, pointing to some taunting after scoring late in the game. Although I didn’t see it, it’s likely true. Like any team, COS has some less than angelic players. But again, the Eagles’ taunts were in retaliation for what happened earlier in the game.

Another thing that showed a lack of class out of Butte was running up the score. Leading 41-19, with 2:18 left to play, they threw a 36-yard pass for a TD on fourth down. Real winners would have punted the ball away, and played defense. Butte did it again with less than two minutes left in the game, this time a 46-yard pass for a TD. Real winners would have run out the clock. Real winners show class.

I think the thing that irritates me most is that college is supposed to prepare students for success in the real world—life after football. Apparently that’s not the goal at Butte, at least not for the football team. What the football coaching staff appears to be preparing the players for is a life of disrespect—disrespect of themselves and others. That doesn’t bode well for their long-term well being.

One of the comments that I made to a local coach was that I wouldn’t want my kids going to Butte. As I was driving home, I remembered that Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson song, “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys.”

Based on what I had just witnessed on the football field, I thought, “It is far better that your babies grow up to be cowboys or just about anything else other than a Butte College Roadrunner.”

Football stuff

COS QB Aqura Brown threw touchdown passes to Klaus Geier (79Y), Darius Davis (70Y), and Alexander Coleman (61Y). Brown also ran 56 yards for a TD. Defensively, Tyson Stephens had an interception, and Tony Faaopega recovered a fumble.