St. George's made the right choice

When colleague Rick McGowan sent me a couple of links - from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald - with stories about St. George's, which pulled out of its game against Independent School League rival Lawrence Academy, I didn't give much thought. Still, I asked Rick to call Dragons coach John Mackay to get his side of the story.

But I was surprised to see just how big of a deal it was - not only in New England, but internationally. After a quick Google search, I saw that the story was picked by by blogs in Arizona and even Canada.

Lawrence, which has demolished ISL competition with its postgraduate-laden team, has four players heading to Division I BCS schools next fall, and there was a safety concern on the part of Mackay and the people at St. George's.

Fair enough.

Apparently, though, that wasn't good enough for a lot of the morons with a computer. Some of the blog posts and reader comments were shocking, to say the least. Armchair quarterbacks, recounting their days on the gridiron (a la Al Bundy at Polk High) chimed with some ridiculous thinking.

Eric Ortiz, a blogger from NESN, writes, "Pop Warner, Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi are rolling over in their graves. Bill Belichick just got so mad he threatened to reacquire Randy Moss and trade him again.

"Imagine if the 2001 New England Patriots had taken that attitude against the 'Greatest Show on Turf' Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. There never would have been a dynasty in Foxboro."

Can you believe this guy actually gets paid by NESN?

A writer from It's Always Sunny in Detroit says, "St. George's School (R.I.) decided to take their ball and go home instead of lining up to play Lawrence Academy (Mass.) on Monday. The St. George Girlymen were scared off by the size of the Lawrence Academy players."

From JockPost.com: "Rhode Island: not only are they the smallest state in the Union, they are also the biggest (expletive). I guess this is obvious given the size of their state, but I just realized it based on the size of their hearts.

"Friday, St. George’s in Rhode Island (which will run a cool $44k/year for a boarding student) cancelled their football game against Lawrence Academy (Mass.) due to fear of injury."

In the reader comments of this post (written as is; so much for grammar): "the school who cancelled should just close its entire athletic program. in fact, the athletic director and president and head coach of the football team should all kill themselves. so should every player and parent. and everyone that knows any of them. and people who owe them money. suicide is much more respectable than living with the shame."

What's a shame is that thoughts like this actually exist.

Apparently, St. George's isn't the only school to complain about the practices of Lawrence Academy football. I commend Mackay and the school for making this decision, which by and large, was frowned upon.

But it teaches the kids to quit when they face adversity, detractors will say. What does Lawrence Academy gain by smashing another ISL opponent? Want to talk about lessons? Why doesn't LA go find an opponent comparable in talent and play that team? Go out of league and play Everett, play Brockton or play a prep school with the same ideology, which is build a juggernaut of a program.

Student-athletes at St. George's have a lot to look forward to in life, and they can do so without the fear of being injured by a vastly superior football team.

R.I. high school football media poll Week 5

While Middletown enjoyed its bye week and prepared for this weekend's showdown with island rival Rogers, the Vikings and Portsmouth notch victories. Those wins, though, didn't help in the rankings, as no local team moved up or down this week.

The Patriots held steady at No. 3 after a 21-0 non-league win over Durfee of Fall River, Mass. Middletown remained at No. 8, while Rogers stayed at No. 13. With the Vikings and Islanders meeting for the top spot in Division III, it's safe to say there will be a big shakeup come this time next week.


Team Points Last week
1. Hendricken (10) 219 1
2. Barrington (1) 210 2
3. Portsmouth 195 3
4. East Providence 185 6
5. Johnston 165 5
6. La Salle 159 4
7. Tolman 157 9
8. Middletown 136 8
9. Cranston West 131 10
10. Mount Hope 117 7
11. Moses Brown 107 11
12. Woonsocket 101 12
13. Rogers 87 13
14. Central 86 18
15. Toll Gate 64 14
16. Ex.-West Greenwich 57 16
17. Cranston East 43 15
18. Burrillville 20 19
19. Shea 16 17
t-20. Chariho 12 20
t-20. Cumberland 12 NR
t-20. Lincoln 12 NR

Dropped from poll: none.
Also receiving votes: Mount Pleasant 7, Coventry 4, North Smithfield 1, South Kingstown 1.

Painful season

I’m staring to identify with how New England Patriots fans felt circa Sept. 8, 2008. While my star quarterback’s season hasn’t come to an abrupt end (not yet, anyway), those of so many other Green Bay Packers have.

It’s a tough pill to swallow when an injury or injuries derail would very well could have been a Super Bowl season.

The season still is fairly young, so I’m not conceding anything just yet. After all, 3-2 isn’t a horrible place to be (just ask the 49ers or Bills, who probably would love to be 3-2 right now). But after losing two of three, and looking like crap in a two-point win over Detroit, to say my confidence in the Packers has taken a hit would be like saying Joe Theismann took a hit from Lawrence Taylor in 1985.

While no Packers injuries have been as devastating as Theismann’s broken leg, mounting injuries to starters — Ryan Grant, Nick Barnett, Clay Matthews, Jermichael Finley, among others — some of which are season-ending, have fans asking, “What’s next?”

I’m well aware that sympathy around these parts (especially considering the Packers will visit Foxboro in late December) is something I won’t find, and I’m not asking for any.

But as fans of a team that lost its season in Week 1 a couple years ago when Bernard Pollard, inadvertently, destroyed Tom Brady’s knee, my hope is that Patriots faithful can, at the very least, empathize.

After all, injuries hurt fans, too.