I wish this had been a good day, everyone.
“Why is my daddy going to jail?” Said a bewildered, crying boy to his mom. “We were just playing football ...”
Shock prevented me from videoing that incident, just as it did while we watched two of our coaches get escorted off the football field by armed Polk-County police officers, just as we all kept quiet while the police combed the bleachers in search of disapproving onlookers and parents. Moments later, I learned that 15 carfuls of fans and parents from Lenoir City had been pulled over and harassed by Polk-County police officers as they drove into Polk County, Tennessee.
I wondered why we saw two-speed traps and two of our team’s coaches pulled over as we entered Polk County.
This is Polk County, Tennessee - - in the United States of America. We weren’t in Saudi
Arabia, being hunted by the morality police. Nor were we caught up within the crossfire of a third-world drug deal gone bad. Nope, we family, friends, and fans of youth football were converging upon a mid-afternoon set of football games between the Lenoir City Panthers and Polk County’s Wildcats.
The vibe was all wrong, my wife and I noted as we approached the field’s parking lot. There was a hostile tension several of us felt. The three earlier games between the younger teams of kids went without incident and seemed rather normal. The “feel“ changed, however, once the “cutters” game began. These boys are ten- and eleven-year-olds, and there was nothing riding on the outcome of this game. This wasn’t a high-profile high-school rivalry football game. It was to be a simple and fair game between two teams within the Sequoia Youth Football Conference.
There was a bit more-than-usual excitement from those in the bleachers. One thing the Sequoia Conference expects of its games’ fans and onlookers is civility, and civility we always deliver. Hateful rowdiness, cussing, and jeering just isn’t tolerated. As expected, we family, friends, and fans kept our promises of civility — both sides of the game were getting along fine.
It wasn’t a pretty game. From the onset, there were a few bad calls made by the refs, but both teams made their fair share of mistakes. There were complaints of the Polk-County players getting away with playing dirty, but the game proceeded as normal. Then, in the fourth quarter, something bizarrely abnormal occurred. Three times, the Polk County Wildcats fumbled the football, and all three times, the Lenoir City Panthers came up with the ball. Yet, in all three cases, the locally hired referees called each fumble a dead ball - - returning possession of the ball to the Polk County team.
Blown calls happen. Football history is rife with stories of teams getting screwed over by bad calls. Games have been lost because of bad calls. I’m blind, and I still laugh when I hear that refs need dark sunglasses and canes so they can make better calls. Stale, but the jokes still evoke grins and approving nods.
Today’s cutters game was ended drastically and dramatically wrong — all wrong. First, the aforementioned blown calls screwed up the Lenoir City Panthers’ chances of winning the football game. The third fumbles bad ruling in a row generated frustration and anger — it was that belligerent and flagrant a bad call. The refs wouldn’t change the call, and the Lenoir City Panthers knew the cards were stacked against them.
Two the Panthers’ coaches, though, challenged the call. Out of nowhere, two armed police officers rushed onto the field and forced one of the coaches off the field. Then, two officers escorted the head coach off the field. But wait, there’s more.
Dissenters in the crowd were quieted when two cops menacingly combed the bleachers. They were obviously there to intimidate dissenters. They seemed to be targeting anyone with an opinion — seriously.
This is when I heard that little boy crying about his daddy going to jail. Remember, this was over three terribly wrong fumble-recovery calls in a row - - and this little kid is left sobbing as he watched his daddy physically removed from the football field by two Polk-County goons.
This is when it rippled through us anxious onlookers that the Polk County Police had been targeting cars arriving into Polk County from Loudon County and that 15 cars had been stopped.
Let me tell you, it’s very sobering to hear that and see cops targeting vocal onlookers — at a supposedly friendly youth-football game. Can you imagine how oppressed we felt, giving up on our First-Amendment Right of Free Speech, in the presence of armed police? It’s sobering. All the lip-service and “if I were there’s” faded away in an instant.
We all fell silent. Like me, many were in shock, and it seems that as of this writing, all had forgotten to videotape this miscarriage of justice and abuse of power.
We were all urged to leave Polk County as quickly as possible — as if the head-hunting would continue.
Well, Polk County business owners and county officials, our shock and disbelief fall on your shoulders. Sure, it’s near the end of the month and the local cops in Polk County need to pay off their donut bills, so enjoy the short-term profit you county officials made off those 15 or so tickets.
Prior to this absurdity many, many of us had planned to get dinner after the game at the local Sonic, Hardees, and McDonalds restaurants. Instead, we all left Polk County as fast as lawfully possible and stopped & ate outside of Polk County.
I am currently sharing my version of today’s events on social media. I’m telling everyone possible that they should avoid Polk County at all costs, for if the locals are fear-mongering fascists as they appeared during today's youth-football game, then they deserve to be isolated and avoided. Who knows what else these nut jobs are willing to do next? It’s safer and more fun to spend our time and money elsewhere.
So, Polk County inbreds, we (speaking for my family and me) will never again set foot in Polk County. We no longer are interested in visiting the rivers and the Cherokee National Forest from within Polk County. Also, my family and I will never attend or participate in any other events in Polk County. My children will never participate in any sporting events in Polk County.
What do you tell that little boy about his daddy being forcibly escorted off the football field — one of the team’s coaches? What kind of lasting impression was made on the memories of attendees, players, families, and friends?
Sore losers? Naw, a game is a game. The last unbelievable wrap-up was hearing the Polk County cutters players hollering and carrying on during their post-game team meeting. It was sick, even perverse, to hear them chanting as if they cleanly won the game and earned the victory. How sad and pathetic their celebration to claim a victory they neither earned nor deserved. The only way their celebration would have made any sense was if all the referees and Polk-County police officers had also joined in. After all, it was a combined team effort. Congratulations to all the real winners of today’s youth-football games. I hope you had fun.
Have the best day possible.
God bless,
RJ
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