A couple of weeks ago, at a high school football game near where I live, a team showed up and played with just 13 players in uniform. Predictably, the game ended 53-0, and it was a struggle for the winning team to keep from scoring 100. At one point, a kid running a punt back for a touchdown intentionally fell at the 20 because enough was enough.
On the same night, at Galt High School near Sacramento, the school’s administration decided to forfeit a game rather than play with 14 healthy bodies. This was a big enough story to make the 11 o’clock news; Galt High has been playing football for 89 years, many of them with distinction, and this was the first time it had been forced to forfeit.