[Football1]

All of the coaches you mentioned have had some MAJOR blowouts over there careers. I dont see how that helped you define this in any way.
Theres always gonna be blowouts. Its a part of football. No sense in crying about it.
Whether a team gets beat 2-0 or 80-0. Its still a loss either way. And either way, there life will go on. Im about 100% theres never been a player commit suicide for getting "the score ran up" on them. I also believe it has very little to do with whether they get a job years down the road. Call me crazy, but ive never had a boss that said "no, sorry, we cant hire you. You ran up the score on Whitley back in the day" or have i ever had one that said "nope, we cant hire you, Whitley beat you all 99-6 your senior year."
Cmon, gimme a break.

Ill agree that football has a small percentage in shaping someone.
However, a kids upbringing is 99% of what they become. Im sure just about everyone will agree when i say if you come from a bad tree your gonna be a bad apple. Thats not always the case but it usually is.
Running up the score and padding stats has nothing to do with life skills lol.
I dont understand where youre coming from on that point of view. It has absoloutly nothing to do with how you'll turn out. The way your putting it makes me think there is a bunch of Uncle Rico's out there who are still making tapes of there throwing arm at 40 years old.
Like it or not theres always gonna be wide margins in games. Its how we set apart the good teams from the bad. Ill never punish a team for puttin 80 points on the board or even more. My point is put up or shut up. If you cant hang, dont play teams that will stomp you and ill leave it at that.

Actually, I make tapes of my golf swing... which always reminds me why I played football... LOL.

I appreciate the opporunity to exchange ideas with you on this topic. As happens often in life, our debate has not ended with either of us modifying our own positions but instead it ends with us both satisfied that we defended what we believe is true. I may indeed over empahsize the value and impact that a sports program has on the character of a participant. I count running up the score up there with the "win at all cost" attitude that drives coaches to teach lineman to hold; drives young men to take steriods; and that drives bullies to overpower the weak simply because they can. All of those things stem from core character flaws. Can sports help correct such things by having coaches lead a program with a view that extends beyond the scoreboard and empahsizes character and sportsmanship? Clearly, I think so. And even if it can't I'd rather err on that side of the fence.