WHAT’S CAUSING ALL THIS / By MITCH LUCAS | What goes around comes around, in case you haven’t heard

There’s a reason I didn’t put “Wake Up” on this, or any sponsor, and when you read it, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly. I wanted to own it myself.

There’s nothing wrong with what I’m about to write. I want to be clear. I don’t have an axe to grind against Liberty-Eylau or its coaches or anyone else. I just happen to strongly disagree with something from last weekend, and I want to make it clear.

I’m not liberal, I don’t think kids should be falling down with a big lead, and I don’t think we should give out “participation trophies.”

But I also don’t think we should be passing inside the 10-yard-line, up by 49 points with a minute left in the fourth quarter in a UIL game on a team that’s 0-9.

I didn’t make the trip to Texarkana to watch Sabine face Liberty-Eylau Friday night. In fact, I haven’t seen a Sabine game all season. I’ve moved around to different spots because as the editor and publisher of ETBlitz.com, I try to go to some of the most competitive games that we have. I do try to hit, over the course of the school year, all of our schools at their best sports.

Full disclosure: I consider Sabine head football coach and athletic director Cody Gilbert a friend, a good friend. I don’t know how many of you reading this actually know Cody, but he’s one of the nicest people in what I call “our” profession, meaning sports-related careers. That’s not rare – there are a LOT of good people in this business. Almost everyone, good people. I’ve met so many over the years, people that I could name-drop that y’all would absolutely know, and 99 percent of them were super-good to work with and talk to, very friendly and personable. There was the one percent, but that’s no different than anyone else.

I’m going down a rabbit hole and not meaning to. Let’s steer this back onto the road. Here’s where I’m going.

Friday night at Liberty-Eylau, with the Leopards hosting Sabine and leading Sabine 49-0, in the final moments of the game, Liberty-Eylau is inside the Sabine 10-yard-line.

And they’re throwing.

Throwing to add more points.

Up 49-0.

Against a winless team that’s had a tough 0-9 season.

Why?

Did something happen? Did the Cardinals wink at your girlfriends on the way into the stadium or something?

I’m not the football etiquette police, ok? And make no mistake, that’s not what we’re going to turn into here.

But I don’t like seeing a friend of mine and his program, a good man who has had to deal with a lot the last two seasons – blistered unnecessarily like that. Why? What was that for? Why including a season-ending injury last year to quarterback Colt Sparks, who might have been one of the record-setting players in program history. The program went from expecting to have one of its best-ever seasons, with a 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4 quarterback who could stomp a mudhole in people and walk it dry to having to move players around that – through no fault of anyone – had no experience at the position.

Here’s the rest of it.

I have admitted I wasn’t in Texarkana. I wasn’t at the game. Liberty-Eylau has no history of this, to my knowledge. And there are relatives of mine, by marriage, that have taught and attended, graduated from Liberty-Eylau. I don’t like doing what I’m doing here, but there’s really not an accusation here; the Leopards threw three straight passes to get them into position and then a fourth to score the touchdown – already up 49-0.

For anybody not familiar with the unwritten rules of football, here’s the deal: if I’m up on you say, I don’t know, 49-0, then yes, it’s your job to stop me. But typically, that doesn’t mean I’m passing with a minute left and a 49-0 lead. Am I telling my players to fall down and don’t score? HECK NO. But we’re not airing it out up half-a-hundred, as “Bear” Bryant used to say. As a coach, play whomever you want, give everyone playing time, pretty much anything is open. But the general rule of sportsmanship is you don’t throw, throw, throw like that.

Did I set those rules? No. Do I subscribe to them? Yeah, sort of. Not really sort of, come to think of it.

Does Liberty-Eylau head coach Brad Willard have to answer to Mitch Lucas? Absolutely not. Could there be more to the story that I don’t know? Absolutely there could. I’ve had several people tell me Brad is a good guy, and I don’t doubt it. In fact, I’m sure he is. Maybe the kids catching the ball had never had a catch, or something. Maybe it’s just as simple as he wanted them to get reps (repetitions, practice).

All I’m saying is, the passing with such a lead, it’s a bad look.

If someone reading this knows of a reason why the Leopards were passing again and again and again, maybe comment below and let me know. I just don’t understand it. If I’m un-informed, let me know.

By the way, I’ve been around the block quite a while in the ol’ sports world. I’ve been doing this sportswriting gig for 32 years. I’ve seen a LOT. And “what goes around, comes around” is always true.

It may not happen now, may not happen this season. But chances are there’s gonna be a time when the Leopards are down quite a bit to a better opponent. I wonder if they’ll want a little “football grace” when that time comes?

I’m betting they will. We’ll see if they get it — or if the opposing coach is throwing.