https://www.ajc.com/sports/2025/11/ghsa-suspends-39-gainesville-football-players-for-brawl-that-ended-playoff-game/
Gainesville says they will appeal but plans to play quarterfinals with remaining players. No decision has been made yet on the Brunswick team since they lost 42-0 when the game was called in the third quarter. Penalties for them will come late but emphasis was get Gainesville sorted out before the next game.
To me, it was a failure of coaching staff on both sides. They should have been preaching all week to not engage in any fighting and not to leave the bench so the coaches could handle it. I hear it was getting chippy in the game. That should have been a topic of discussion before the game and at halftime after seeing the way the game was going. I've seen our coaches in players faces when things started to get out of hand.
Was this supposed to be some kind of game where everybody in the world knew there was going to be a fight? 🤠
You can't coach a team not to fight.
Fights break out and happen....... just takes one player to start a brawl.
Just like coaches getting in players faces after late hits and personal fouls...... getting in someone's face never really solved anything
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I guess what I'm trying to say Fred is this.
If a player punches a Grayson player in the throat there's going to be a fight. 🤠 Ha!
Don't put yourself above it all like you have a superior coaching staff.
Mass suspensions for fights is the stupidest thing in HS sports. The same thing happened to a public school in NJ, Paulsboro, earlier this postseason. They only had 18 players for the next round and got upset. A team that is way behind in the dying minutes of a game with nothing to lose, shouldn't be able to pick a fight and screw their opponent over for the next round, or worse, potentially disqualify them and inherit their spot in return.
All in all I think the coaches did a pretty good job putting a stop to all that madness in about a minute.
Quote from: Redzone on Nov 24, 2025, 11:25 AMWas this supposed to be some kind of game where everybody in the world knew there was going to be a fight? 🤠
You can't coach a team not to fight.
Fights break out and happen....... just takes one player to start a brawl.
Just like coaches getting in players faces after late hits and personal fouls...... getting in someone's face never really solved anything
Brunswick has a reputation for things like this and from what I've read, #77 did the same thing last year and was disqualified. It was appealed and he was allowed to play again only to do the same thing this year and brag about it.
You absolutely can coach your team not to fight and especially not to leave the bench area. Turn and walk away and survive to play another day.
Quote from: Redzone on Nov 24, 2025, 11:28 AMI guess what I'm trying to say Fred is this.
If a player punches a Grayson player in the throat there's going to be a fight. 🤠 Ha!
Don't put yourself above it all like you have a superior coaching staff.
Well Mr. Not Know It All, you are very, very wrong. We *have* been in that situation but because our coaching staff taught our team members to walk away and let the coaches handle it, they did. We unexpectedly beat a team in the playoffs one year and things got chippy. A ruckus started but ended immediately. The following year, we met the same team in the playoffs again. Our coaching staff had emphasized all week what to do and when the opposing team started up, to a man, our boys walked away. The rule has been on the books for a long time and every knows or should know about it.
Quote from: Fred on Nov 24, 2025, 09:46 PMWell Mr. Not Know It All, you are very, very wrong. We *have* been in that situation but because our coaching staff taught our team members to walk away and let the coaches handle it, they did. We unexpectedly beat a team in the playoffs one year and things got chippy. A ruckus started but ended immediately. The following year, we met the same team in the playoffs again. Our coaching staff had emphasized all week what to do and when the opposing team started up, to a man, our boys walked away. The rule has been on the books for a long time and every knows or should know about it.
Exactly: this clown thinks this is an everyday occurrence. When stuff like this happens, it makes news. Because it is out of the norm. And you will find the same teams doing it much more often than others. Some teams will build a reputation for playing in the gray area of the rules, and take on their coaches persona with them being enabled and sometimes emboldened to act with as much unsportsmanlike behavior as possible.
Quote from: Crusader on Nov 24, 2025, 12:31 PMMass suspensions for fights is the stupidest thing in HS sports. The same thing happened to a public school in NJ, Paulsboro, earlier this postseason. They only had 18 players for the next round and got upset. A team that is way behind in the dying minutes of a game with nothing to lose, shouldn't be able to pick a fight and screw their opponent over for the next round, or worse, potentially disqualify them and inherit their spot in return.
I think you have to make the consequences serious enough. Mass fight in the playoffs, no season the following year. Harsh? To be sure but you have to reach the threshold of pain for people to take it serious. Make coaches, players, and parents sign that they understand what will happen. Otherwise, what you describe is too easy to do.
I watched a field view of the incident and clearly the team in black was whole heartedly responsible for everything that happened.The one kid pulls two kids helmets off and they don't retaliate.Then he punched one of the kids and they don't retaliate.Then a lineman in black sprits the field and plows over a kid and then the fight is on
I think the Gainesville/Langston game could be played in 2026.
The GHSA has appealed the court decision to issue the injunction.
Rufus>>