Don't blame football for hazing incidents

A few Friday nights ago, Highland hosted Triton in a high school football game.

Neither team was ranked in the Top 25 in South Jersey by The Inquirer. Triton was 2-1. Highland was 0-3.

But the stands were filled with fans on both sides of the field. There were chanting student sections from both schools. The Highland pep band set a lively tone with tightly played, upbeat musical numbers.

The night before, West Deptford visited Haddonfield for a rare Thursday night game.

The huge concrete grandstand at Haddonfield was packed with people. It was so crowded that some spectators had to stand behind ropes on the track at the far end of the old stadium.

Camden Catholic vs. Camden at Farnham Park, same story. Haddonfield at Collingswood, same story. Cherokee at Lenape, same story.

These were high times for high school football in South Jersey. Attendance was up, students and alumni were engaged, and the sport was lending itself to the pageantry, hometown pride, and sense of community that are among the best aspects of the scholastic experience.

Then the news about Sayreville broke.

Then the news about Central Bucks West broke.

And I worried that some people would get a different idea about high school football.

I worried that some people would suspect there was something in the culture of the sport that had contributed to the hazing scandals that persuaded officials at Sayreville, in Middlesex County, and Central Bucks West, in Southeastern Pennsylvania's Bucks County, to shut down those programs for the season.

I worried that some people wouldn't see these as isolated incidents, rare cases of inexcusably unsupervised teenage boys taking a tradition - the all-in-good-fun initiation of younger athletes into an established team - to an ugly extreme.

Seven student-athletes were charged by police in Sayreville. Law enforcement in Bucks County is investigating that situation as well, and while the early reports seem to indicate the behavior wasn't criminal, it was offensive enough to move the schools superintendent to turn out the lights on one of the state's proudest programs.

Let's be honest: This kind of stuff happens at other schools and in other sports. Veterans ragging on rookies - again, it's supposed to be good-natured and part of the positive process by which new players are welcomed to the team - has been part of organized sports for as long as there have been organized sports.

Clearly, it went too far at Sayreville and Central Bucks West. It wasn't comical, boys-will-be-boys high jinks. It was way over the line.

And it happened inside two highly successful football programs.

Some people might suggest there is something about the alpha-male-dominated, combative nature of the game - with its battle metaphors, its emphasis on physicality, its army of athletes wrapped in protective gear - that leads to puffed-up 17-year-old chests and twisted perceptions of initiation rites.

I believe they would be wrong about that.

High school football teaches valuable lessons to impressionable young men about discipline, sacrifice, and teamwork.

The overwhelming majority of coaches strive to create a healthy culture within their programs with emphasis on sportsmanship and respect for others involved in the sport - especially younger, smaller teammates.

Those burly offensive linemen from Holy Cross - and their beefed-up brethren who work the trenches across South Jersey and across the country - would cross their arms and shake their heads and protect a 115-pound reserve defensive back on the freshman team in the locker room as ferociously as they guard the senior star quarterback on the field.

This past Friday night's clash between Triton and host Paul VI - with another huge crowd filling the home stands, with the music and cheerleaders and bright lights and blocked punt and 97-yard touchdown run and postgame handshakes among players and coaching staffs - was illustrative of the true nature of football.

Sayreville and Central Bucks West didn't reveal anything about the sport. Those incidents are shocking because football isn't like that.