The game of football is under fire, and it has been for quite some time now.
Parents are pulling their kids from the game due to its violent nature, medical studies are saying that one’s well-being can be affected long-term by repeated blows to the head, even with today’s advanced helmets, and our culture’s opinion of its beloved game seems to be turning as well-respected people, such as LeBron James, have hinted that they wouldn’t let their children play the game that millions of Americans love. I believe that the opinion of football is changing as our cultural mindset changes. It’s becoming soft.
Today the attack on football hit a little closer to home, as the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, whose motto is “Protecting Georgia’s Higher Standard of Learning,” informed well-known and highly-scrutinized Colquitt County head coach Rush Propst that he had been suspended for one year as a result of a head-butting incident that occurred on the sidelines of the Packers’ 52-31 victory over Mill Creek in the GHSA AAAAAA semifinals.
In the incident, Propst can be seen head-butting Luis “Baby Lou” Martinez, one of the best kickers in the history of Georgia High School football, before turning and brushing against linebacker and Arkansas-commit Dee Walker. Martinez was wearing his helmet at the time of the incident.
It’s up for debate whether Propst cut his head during the intentional head-butt of Martinez or the unintentional run-in with Walker, but that’s beside the point.
[av_video src=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKsMMsW8Aew’ format=’16-9′ width=’16’ height=’9′ av_uid=’av-46lb1l’]Propst shrugged off the incident upon hearing that Georgia Public Broadcasting’s cameras had caught the scene live, as he simply quipped, “Haven’t you ever seen Erk Russell coach football?” Propst was referring, of course, to the late Georgia Southern head coach and UGA defensive coordinator who used to head-butt his players on the sideline to fire them up.
I believe that the suspension of Rush Propst is wrong for several reasons, both in timing and in principle.
First, suspending the Colquitt County head coach on June 16, when the incident happened on December 4, over six months ago, is beyond absurd. Would the boss at a corporation suspend a worker for unprofessional conduct in the workplace a year after it occurred, when the punishment is handed down so late it doesn’t even come close to fitting the crime? Similarly, would we be discussing Propst’s suspension if Colquitt County had gone 16-14 over the last two years instead of 30-0? Would we even be talking about this at all if Propst didn’t already have a negative image in the media due to past events which have nothing to do with this incident? These points can be debated, but the answers are “no,” “no” and “no.” No professional organization would waste time and delay handing down such a harsh punishment, and we most definitely would not be discussing this incident today if the Packers head coach wasn’t a controversial figure with back-to-back state titles under his belt.
Propst’s suspension is also wrong because football is a metaphor for life as a whole, which is why so many people have already and will continue to fall in love with the game. When you get knocked down, you must stand back up. When you think you can’t take another step forward, you close your eyes and do it anyway to discover just how strong you really are. You make sacrifices for your brothers. You put yourself second. You learn to work towards a goal bigger than yourself. You fight, you bleed and you hurt, but you learn to get stronger and rise above seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
But would any of these lessons be learned without a coach there for guidance? They most certainly wouldn’t be.
Different people, largely depending on personality type and other characteristics, prefer different coaching styles. Some people want a coach who is even-keel, never showing emotion, to help guide a team through the inevitable ups and downs of a season. Others, however, want a coach who is passionate and who isn’t afraid to stand up to anyone, whether it is a referee or a player, if it ultimately leads to the greater good of the team. The latter description happens to be the kind of coach that Colquitt County possesses.
Propst is simply a passionate coach who chooses to teach these aforementioned lessons in an intense way. The coaching style offends some and it isn’t for everybody, but can we really argue the results? Propst head-butted Luis Martinez out of passion for the game he has spent his life coaching and out of immense love for his players, which brings me to my third point.
Propst loves his players and his players love him back, which is something I have learned in the hours since his suspension. Although Propst is currently unable to legally comment on the impending investigation, Navy-commit Chase Parrish, who quarterbacked the Pack in each and every game during the team’s unblemished two-year run, had this to say about Propst:
“There are many different coaching styles and Coach Propst’s style of coaching is very intense. I can understand how this incident can be seen as negative or controversial, but from an insider’s perspective, this incident is an example of our head coach showing passion for the game and trying to motivate his players. Coach Propst loves his players and we as a team know he wants nothing but the best for us. His passion stems from seeing his players succeed. He supports his players 100% and in turn we support him 100%.”
Luis Martinez, a Georgia Southern kicking commit, has been overlooked in the entire controversy but was the subject of Propst’s ire during the second quarter of Colquitt’s game with Mill Creek. Few people have any idea of why the Packers’ head man was so irate when his team was scoring at will versus the GHSA’s best defense, but Martinez is one of them. Yet, he agrees with Parrish and has chosen to back Propst.
“I am supporting Coach Propst,” Martinez affirmed. “He is a great coach and I believe the whole Packer fan base would agree with me. His players love him, and so do I.”
The bottom line is that a one-year punishment for this incident is way too much. If the penalty had been levied the week after the game, it would have still been much too harsh. But the fact that we are sitting here, in the middle of the summer, discussing something that had seemingly died down months ago is ridiculous. If Rush Propst had hurt a player, he would have undoubtedly deserved a suspension. That didn’t happen, however, and it is clear that the player involved, Luis Martinez, took no exception to the incident. I believe he, Chase Parrish, and any other Colquitt County Packer who graduated at the conclusion of last season would go into battle with Rush Propst as their head coach again today if they could. Additionally, the Moultrie community has constantly echoed support for their controversial head coach. The words they speak about Propst the coach, in my opinion, speak far louder than the suspension handed down.
I believe that many people understand that allowing a coach to make physical contact with a player is a dangerous proposition, and it is something that should not be taken lightly. However, it is clear to me after speaking with a few key players from Colquitt’s championship runs that Propst meant no ill-will toward anyone. Colquitt was 30 minutes away from its 29th consecutive win and a second consecutive berth in the state championship, the game was close, and the incident happened. I have no clue whether or not Propst would admit he made a mistake. I, myself, don’t think he made a mistake. He simply did something that has been done by other coaches before. One (Erk Russell) was even memorialized for it.
Football is a violent game by nature, but with the proper coaching and guidance it can teach some of life’s toughest lessons. Some coaches just have different ways of leading their players, and some people clearly just don’t understand.
[av_image src=’https://itgnext.com/wp-content/uploads/883936_10153760132009836_1401535115850921049_o-1030×686.jpg’ attachment=’6491′ attachment_size=’large’ align=’center’ styling=” hover=’av-hover-grow’ link=’lightbox’ target=” caption=” font_size=” appearance=” overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’ animation=’fade-in’ av_uid=’av-35vpvt’][/av_image]In the Game / June 2016 / Web Only
In The Game EXCLUSIVE
The Suspension of Rush Propst Is Wrong, Colquitt Players React
Written by Jacob Dennis (@jakeyd_8)
Photography by Marque Milla Reese (@themilla)
