A Month of Facts about Dru: Day Twenty-one

Today's true story (complete with moral quandary):

So some kids from one of the other elementary schools are coming over this week to play a friendly touch-football scrimmage with my kids. Playing sports with the kids is definitely one of the things I enjoy most about my job. I try to teach them stuff about basketball and football. (For some reason or other, four square seems like the dominant sport at this elementary school. I don't know why! It ain't as fun as the big two of basketball and football. I keep telling the kids that dominating in four square will not get them very far. They ain't gonna get a college scholarship playing four square, you know?)

I have a few, maybe around eight or ten, kids who like playing football. It is funny how they always ask me to play quarterback. When I play QB for the kids, I am totally Peyton Manning out there: a straight up field general with a rocket arm (we play on a short field) with laser precision, and I can't run at all. Almost all my passes are astounding and most of my incompletions are never my fault.

A couple weeks ago when I told the kids that kids from another school challenged them to a football game, they got excited. They kept asking me if the other school was good, and they kept asking me to practice with them so they could destroy the opposition. (Maybe they didn't use those exact words.) I even drew up a couple plays for them and we practiced them last Friday. It fascinates me to see how young minds try to grasp a play diagram. They aren't quite at the point where they fully understand how plays in videogame football work, but their enthusiasm almost softens my heart. I don't know, but I might've cracked a smile that day.

Today, though, I caught a pair of students cheating on some homework. Serious business, cheating. I talked to their day teacher and they will face some repercussions. However, I didn't think that was enough - when the League catches a team tampering with another team's free agent-to-be, the League doesn't just fine the tampering team. They also lose a draft pick. So I felt these two students had to punished for their academic transgression. As much as it pained me, I decided to suspend them from the football team, even though they are probably two of my top three players.

To top it all off, one of them decided to rat out some other kids who cheated on some other homework. I had no recourse but to punish them as well. And of course these kids are also core players on the football team. So now about three-fourths of my team is going to be ineligible to play in the big game.

What can you do in a situation like this? You have to start some of your second-string players. You have to sign a couple of D-leaguers to fill out the roster. You try to find an aging veteran to provide some leadership to give the young guys some pretense of stability. You tell everyone to play loose and have fun because no one expects anything of them so there's no pressure. And you just hope and pray that everyone plays their hearts out and competes and whatever happens, happens.

The elementary school version: you panic inside, and you start wondering if it's time to compromise your morals for the sake of a simple game that doesn't even matter. You start asking yourself questions like, "Now, would it be better if I just rescinded the punishment and let them all play in the game this week? What other sort of punishment can I give them?" And you justify it with statements like, "None of the other kids want to play. Most of them don't even have any interest in football. We're gonna get our butts whooped like this."

Here's the thing. By taking away their eligibility to play in the football game, I am demonstrating that academics comes first at school. You cheat, you pay the price. You don't get to parade around the field the next day like nothing happened. You don't get to play "the game, the game that I go out there, and die for" to quote A.I. I think this is a worthy lesson. It is definitely a lesson that would be very difficult to argue against, considering these are elementary school kids and this is only a friendly football game with absolutely no repercussions whatsoever.

But...

Is that actually how real life works? In real life, it's clear that as long as you have talent, you can get away with just about anything. You can be a prima donna and still get paid by the millions. People will put up with your antics as long as you have talent. Just look at T.O. or Ron Artest. Even cheaters can prosper. College athletics is all about cheating. Just look at USC with Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo. Or here's a better example - Memphis with Derrick Rose. Sure, the schools themselves got punished with a little slap on the wrist, but the players themselves have prospered.

Heck, if you have enough athletic talent, you can even get away with killing someone. People hate on Mike Vick because he killed some dogs. He did two years for that. To me, it's unbelievable that such an injustice was allowed. No, I am not talking about Vick killing dogs. I'm talking about how he had to do so much time in prison for his crime.

A decade ago, Leonard Little killed a human being while drunk driving. He didn't have to spend two years in prison. He got to keep on playing. And then a few years after that, he got pulled over again for speeding while driving while intoxicated. He's played continuously for the Rams up to this past season.

What about Donte Stallworth? He also killed a person while driving drunk. He did thirty days in jail. Got suspended from the NFL for a season. A couple weeks ago, he signed a contract with the Ravens.

Do I even have to bring up Kobe? Heh.

All of this brings us to my moral conundrum. Two choices here. And maybe I've just been playing too much Mass Effect 2 lately, but it sure feels like I can pick between a Paragon choice and a Renegade choice: Justly punishing the kids and teaching the kids a lesson that basically only applies to children? Or letting them off the hook with a wink and a slap on the wrist, and basically letting them know that it is okay to break the rules as long as you're talented, because that's how the world works? (And then we'd probably win the football game.)

It's so ridiculous to think about this. But I guess I'm too good at overthinking. In the end, though, I rely on common sense. And my Common-Sense is tingling.

I don't care if we lose the football game because I have to force conscripts away from four square to play. It's going to be worth it. I hope I can teach those kids something. I hope they take something out of their punishment. I hope I can make an impact on their lives. Children are the future, right?

That's what I keep telling myself, anyway. It could all be fruitless. But I have to believe my work is important. So I just keep trying.