0
0
Page coach Charles Rathbone calmly made his way through the crowd and up in front of his team.
Rathbone congratulated his team as a whole following their rollercoaster of a win over Southwind. He then turned his attention to one player in particular. That player was junior edge Eric Hazzard.
In a chaotic final 90 seconds of that 10-7 win, Hazzard came up with the night’s biggest play sacking fellow Mr. Football candidate Kelvin Perkins and forcing a frantic last-second field goal. That last-second field had no shot and the celebration was on.
“I hope there’s reporters around here,” Rathbone said looking at Hazzard. “If you’re a reporter, Mr. Football has spoken right here.”
I don’t disagree with Rathbone here.
Over the last two weeks, Hazzard’s gone 2-0 against the other two finalists in Perkins and Centennial’s Dominic Reed. Hazzard also caught the game-winning pass against Centennial as a tight end.
Two straight weeks, two game-clinching plays. You add on what he’s done throughout the entirety of the year, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve it.
The same could be said of Oakland junior running back Daune Morris. Like Hazzard, Morris has played the other two Class 6A finalists the last two weeks. All he’s done in those two games is run for nine touchdowns and nearly 400 yards in a pair of wins.
The problem with the award
As good as Hazzard and Morris have been, the problem is that everything they’ve accomplished in the postseason means absolutely nothing when it comes to deciding if they’re Mr. Football.
Each finalist selected is chosen based on what they did during the regular season.
How is it possible that the biggest games of the season don’t matter when deciding who the best player from each class is? That’s something I’ve never quite understood.
I grew up in Indiana where there’s only one Mr. Football winner for the entire state and he’s a senior. That senior is selected based on what he did for the entirety of his senior season.
Now why I like how each class gets a winner here in Tennessee, I don’t like that the winner is selected based on what he did during the regular season.
Regular season games are important but there’s no denying the stakes when it comes to postseason football. In the last few weeks, a team that won the regular season matchup ended up losing the rematch in the playoffs.
Talk about awkward
In two weeks the Mr. Football Award banquet will be held at Nissan Stadium like it is every year. Hundreds of media members will get together with the best players from around the state to celebrate another fantastic year of high school football.
Now imagine both Hazzard and Morris are at this banquet coming off of state championship wins. They then go up as a Mr. Football finalist. However, they don’t hear “Eric Hazzard” or “Daune Morris” announced as the winner despite everything they’ve done in the postseason.
I think both have as good a shot as any of the finalists to win the award this year. If this was a full-season award though, guys like that would be the sure-fire winners.
I don’t know what the answer is or how things could change to where the whole season would be taken into account. I just know that it needs to change.
Players’ accomplishments from the most important month of the season aren’t being taken into account. If we’re being real, that just doesn’t make any sense at all.
