Place your bets, place your bets ... on Pop Warner football

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/football/fl-pee-wee-football-arrests-20121030,0,5659224.story

It's nutty enough betting on 19 and 20 year old kids in major college football. But you've got to be some kind of degenerate gambler to have C-notes down on 8 year olds who stop in the middle of a touchdown run to look at the clouds forming dinosaurs ... to say nothing of the sickness of betting on kids in the first place. This isn't much different than those camel races in the Middle East, with kids being forced to serve as jockeys.

 

This is an old story -- as mentioned in this link, the investigation began after an ESPN report 18 months ago.

But another reminder that Pop Warner football laps the field when it comes to crazy. Wrestling and cheerleading parents are solid contenders for the silver and bronze, but PW is a Dream Team-level gold medalist.

 

That ESPN story was actually about kids getting paid to be on teams, paid for big plays and touchdowns and a bounty system, and how parents have come to relay on the money. Don't know if this is the same batch of coaches or associtions.

 

Could be. Last one I remember was in South Florida. I was thinking Miami.

 

Do you know how to read? This is the second paragraph of the story you posted.

But leaders of the South Florida Youth Football League exploited the young players' talent and gambled on games, law enforcement said about an 18-month investigation that began after a May, 2011 ESPN report.

 

These teams are all in Broward county, not Miami.

I cover games in Broward county and I saw $500 bet on a game last night. It's pretty common here. I've seen it at almost every game I've been to.

 

What's your point?

 

That you said the ESPN story was just about players and their families getting paid, not about gambling, and that you didn't know if this was the same batch of coaches. And that the story -- the one you brought to the SJ world -- said this (it appears now to be a write-thru, so different words but same gist):

Prosecutors said their 18-month investigation began after a May 2011 ESPN report about gambling at games where players were aged 5 to 15.

 

That you were wrong, once again.

 

Sunrise Steelers (+7.5) at the Dunlap Tires Bills

 

Is it possible for you to make a point without being a grade-A a-hole?

 

AAU basketball and its street pimps say hi.