A chop block is illegal for a reason

Boy you just hope the rumors aren’t true.

Up here at the C-N, we’ve had some Paulding football fans contacting us, outraged and what they witnessed on Friday night in the Panthers’ game against Spencerville.

Allegedly, a Spencerville player was waiting for a teammate to stand up Paulding’s linemen and then he was diving at their knees. I say the word allegedly, because I haven’t seen the tape and I wasn’t at the game, but if it’s true the entire Spencerville program should be embarrassed. As an old lineman I cringe every time I think of somebody shooting for the knees and any coach that teaches this technique, should find something else to do. Football’s a game of hitting and injuries happen, but to try to hurt someone like this has no place in the game.

What I do know is that three Paulding youngsters received leg injuries because of Friday night’s game, I hope their football careers aren’t over and I hope if they aren’t they don’t return and use the same pathetic tactics to “get even.”

You see as a lineman if you’re engaged with another player you attention is solely on that player. Even if you’re double-teamed, you can focus on those two guys, but with someone coming in late and low, it’s next to impossible to protect yourself from that and unfortunately it takes some pre-planning to set this up.

Football is supposed to be about proving you’re a better “man” than that guy across from you, how can you do that with a chop block? I hope this isn’t true, but I have a feeling we haven’t heard the last of it. If you want to check out some other people’s opinions check out this forum at www.rocketcorner.com.