So, 58-0 happened on ESPN earlier tonight. Live from Canton, Ohio. Post-game here. As a sports fan and church watcher, let’s see how many wrong things I can count.
First, a few sportswriters think Bishop Sycamore lied to get on tv, and some are wondering if it’s even a real high school. Here is the website. Looks like all football. No teachers, students, band, or even a cheer team. No tuition, so yay on that. Hardly much of a internet presence. Just football and camps and players flying into central Ohio.
Sports on tv is all about money. Professional athletes, obviously. Nothing really wrong with that. Colleges with all that money getting shuttled to adults in sports organizations, schools, their coaches, and the players–not so much. But high school?
You can bet (and you probably can with gambling lines) the players on high school teams are getting zilch. I guess with college players demanding some piece of the broadcast pie, the next athletes eligible to slave for adults are high school kids.
Apparently, Bishop Sycamore played a game on Friday night. Not even pros play two games in three days. The Players Association would be on the owners and the media faster than a defensive team on a ball it knocked on the ground for a fumble.
Football, the American kind, is a dangerous endeavor, especially for kids. Especially for tired athletes. It shouldn’t be on tv. It shouldn’t match up haves versus have-nots. Possibly it shouldn’t be happening at all for minors. When a score is 30-0 in the second quarter, and its clear the game has one winner, then it’s time for the game to end. Then let the announcers play trivia without distraction.
There is no Bishop Sycamore listed as an Ohio Catholic high school in the diocese of Columbus.
What should happen? I was thinking some bishop should lay down the law, but apparently there’s no jurisdiction.
And ESPN? A front page google search would find this item, which should have brought the whole deal into question.
Who’d have thought that a media giant would be absolutely duped into lining the pockets of hucksters who couldn’t make it in a real high school?
Catholic Sensibility 
The Catholic Hierarchy website betrays nobody with the surname Sycamore being a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
According to its charter on file with the Ohio Sec’y of State, the corporation for the school was founded just 2 years ago this month with the following stated purpose “WE ARE A FOUNDATION THAT PROVIDES EDUCATION/SPORTS TO STUDENT ATHLETES. WE HELP YOUTH/YOUNG ADULTS THAT WANT TO GO OFF TO COLLEGE AND HAVE NO SOLID SUPPORT. ALSO CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS THAT STRUGGLE WITH EDUCATION WE HELP GIVE THEM THE SUPPORT THAT THEY NEED FROM US.”