I don’t care what anybody else thinks. The Illinois College football team should play MacMurray.

Some people are afraid the game would turn into a scene from “The Longest Yard.” I don’t think so. Truth is, nobody knows what would happen because the two teams have never played one another. But think of all the football rivalry games that are played year in and year out at the high schools and colleges across our great land, and tell me how many have had to be stopped because of a riot. If you don’t think the young people at MacMurray College and Illinois College can behave themselves for three hours on a sunny Saturday afternoon … what kind of people do you think they are?

A problem in the stands? I doubt it. A few rowdies usually show up at the softball and soccer games between the two schools, but they generally sit away from the rest of the crowd where only the players can hear them. They wouldn’t be able to do that in a football game. If you want to be on the safe side, designate seating areas and hire extra security. But it won’t be necessary.

Scheduling? It’s easy. Drop Blackburn from both teams’ schedules and play the game on the first day of the regular season, on the Labor Day weekend.

Why play the game? Because it’s silly not to. The game would attract a gigantic crowd every year. Make it a charity event. Bring together all the organizations on both campuses to sell raffle tickets or whatever, and then donate all the money to a worthy cause here in Jacksonville.

Not playing this football game does nothing for anyone. Playing the game could help bring the community together.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.