My son Bradley’s new football team has been together practicing since Aug. 1, but it’s always exciting to get to that first scrimmage so that the kids can finally see what they can do against other teams before the season starts. In this case, it was a 30-minute trip last Saturday to a jamboree, with multiple teams scrimmaging against each other.

There were no officials working the “live” scrimmage with tackling, but the coaches had whistles to blow a play dead if they felt a tackle or sack was imminent, a defensive player had control of an offensive player with the ball, or simply when a play was over. Each scrimmage period was 30 minutes long, with an offense running as many plays as they could against a defense.

There were bleachers along one sideline, but my son’s team was on the opposite sideline with no bleachers, so parents and family brought their own chairs. During a regular-season game, league rules would not permit spectators to be right up against the sideline, but this was a scrimmage, so everyone sat where they pleased.

What that setup did was set the scene for an unfortunate situation. 

One of the teams was taking some liberties with their tackling, and it was catching the ire of my son’s coaches and everyone on the sideline. The other team was blitzing multiple players up the middle and they were tackling after the whistle. There were times when some of our coaches had to warn them to “take it easy” and that “it’s just a scrimmage.” 

On one play, a player on Bradley’s team was running to the outside toward our sideline. The kids were moving pretty fast, so anybody watching who was in that area began to move out of the way, because the runner and the would-be tacklers were coming right for the sideline. The young man on Bradley’s team stepped out of bounds and was promptly tackled by two kids on the other team when the play should have been over.

That’s when things turned ugly.

The father of the young man who was tackled was very upset and let the players and the coaches on the other team know about it. He was right to be angry, because in all honesty, I would not have been happy if my child was tackled out of bounds in a scrimmage. But that is a situation where the coaches have to handle things and restore order.

The parents, in a normal situation, wouldn’t even be that close to say their peace, but this time, everybody was right in front of the incident, and it was unfortunate. After the father let a few things off his chest, one of the coaches on the other team tried to calm him down by saying “we’re not trying to hurt anybody “and “we don’t have lines on our practice field, so the kids didn’t know it was out of bounds.”

Say what?

Everyone knows that kids are kids, and they’re going to make mistakes, but that statement spoke volumes. These kids weren’t prepared for this scrimmage, and those coaches were not at all bothered by what happened, because they didn’t admonish their own players for their actions. The coach’s “explanation” also had a ripple effect because then other parents from our team started screaming at him because they weren’t happy.

If you were a parent or family member on our team, you had a right to be upset. The last thing you want is for any child to be put in harm’s way, and a parent will do whatever they can to protect their child. But this was a situation where two wrongs didn’t make the situation right.  

The coaches should have alerted their kids that there were lines on the field and not to be so aggressive in a scrimmage. To be fair, the parents really shouldn’t have been that close to the field, because it was a recipe for disaster. Having said that, when a situation like that takes place, the parents should let the coaches take care of the situation because it’s their responsibility. 

If it was a game, an official would certainly have thrown a flag and parents might be ejected from the game or fined for being on or so close to the field. Youth football can be such a wonderful experience, and there’s no question it can be emotional for all parties involved. But we all need to do our part to make sure that the experience is great for everyone. 

We all need to let the coaches coach, let the players play, and let the officials do their jobs. The coaches have the responsibility to prepare the kids to play, but the parents also must understand that their job is to cheer and root on every kid on the team and not make themselves part of the game. 

Peter Schwartz is a sports anchor for the CBS Sports Radio Network and WCBS 880 Radio in New York. His son, Bradley, plays youth football on Long Island while his younger son, Jared, will begin playing flag football this coming fall. Peter, his wife, Sheryl, and the boys are busy cheering on the New York Jets when they’re not at a youth football field.