I am going to raise the red flag on this topic again this season. With 7 weeks finished in Kentucky high school football, I have seen a majority of skill players on the field not wearing their mouthguards during play. With all of the concern about player safety, I DO NOT GET IT. Why is this no longer enforced at any level, pro, college, or high school?

It’s illegal to do so, but the current trend is one mouthpiece in and a different one hanging down.

 

8 hours ago, Pi said:

It’s illegal to do so, but the current trend is one mouthpiece in and a different one hanging down.

 

In HS in KY you can’t do this. It was addressed in the rules clinic this year. 

9 hours ago, Pi said:

It’s illegal to do so, but the current trend is one mouthpiece in and a different one hanging down.

 

 

1 hour ago, barrel said:

In HS in KY you can’t do this. It was addressed in the rules clinic this year. 

Kneepads covering the knees is a "point of emphasis" this year as @theguru pointed out in the TD celebrations thread yesterday.  And we see how well they are addressing that.

10 hours ago, Hardin County Preps said:

I am going to raise the red flag on this topic again this season. With 7 weeks finished in Kentucky high school football, I have seen a majority of skill players on the field not wearing their mouthguards during play. With all of the concern about player safety, I DO NOT GET IT. Why is this no longer enforced at any level, pro, college, or high school?

Why do you think the coaches aren’t making their players adhere to it?

It's tiring. Anyone see Mark Stoops yesterday talking about his running back not tying his shoes? There's a sociaital issue where kids are living is a false reality created by social media.

Refs, coaches etc can't police it. If it's a situation that's so egregious, that's when refs or coaches are stepping in. 

Does anyone have an example of an injury this year that would have been prevented by knee pads that were not worn properly? Or a mouthpiece that wasn't being worn? Just curious.

In my opinion, if it is required then it should be enforced. Working in the school system I know that this is a problem. If a school has policies, then administration/teachers/coaches should address them if they are not being followed.  I see too many times, where a policy is not enforced and it allows students the opportunity to do what they want. Growing up I was taught that whatever you are told to do, you did that with no hesitation. It has become very difficult to enforce policies when parents offer excuses for their kids instead of holding them accountable. They call administration until they get what they want. On the other hand, there are still many who hold students accountable for all behavior. I admire those people. None of us are perfect, but allowing students to get away with unacceptable behavior does not help them to prepare to live a successful life. I know it is unpopular to hold students accountable, but we must in order to fulfill our duty to teach them what it means to follow all guidelines/policies/standards. Parents please help by doing so at home so that we can make school a better place of learning. And it helps to prepare them for the challenging world that we live in.

Guess these youngsters are just like my generation and seatbelts.  In the 60’s very few cars had them and if they did it just wasn’t cool to wear them.  In 70’s after having several friends die in wrecks us slow learners began to think there might be something to wearing them.  Today us really smart older folks hardly back out of the garage before buckling up.  Car even screams at us if we forget.  Knee pads and mouthpieces may not be cool, but maybe really smart coaches and refs need to be heard a little more clearly.

51 minutes ago, BLUEHOUND said:

Refs, coaches etc can't police it.

Sure they can. They just don't. 

Players are way too concerned with their appearance or cool factor. I've seen interviews where players said they didn't want to pull their pant legs and knee pads down or wear a padded helmet, just due to how uncool it looked. 

Nothing more ridiculous than having two and even three mouth pieces dangling from a face mask while using none of them during the play. But that's just my old guy perception. 

I was watching a tour of the Alabama football facility. Probably 3 out of every 4 players the filmmakers came in contact with, were more concerned with showing off their "Drip" than football. 

I would be curious to see how many kneepads have saved actual knee injuries. In today's game, kneepads are about the size of a sand dollar or smaller. Half the time it is enforced in the 1st 5 minutes of the game and then never looked at again. 

4 minutes ago, EagleRare20 said:

I would be curious to see how many kneepads have saved actual knee injuries. In today's game, kneepads are about the size of a sand dollar or smaller. Half the time it is enforced in the 1st 5 minutes of the game and then never looked at again. 

That is a stat that is impossible to measure. 

Player's knees make contact with something dozens of times a game. I wonder why there aren't more knee injuries?

When I was in 6th grade there was a game a team had a no time left reverse pass for a touchdown for the win.. it got called back because a kid didn't have his mouthpiece in. Brutal. 

4 weeks ago I personally asked a Ref working a Boyle game about this after hearing him yelling at player to put his mouthguard in.  His reply was "We prefer they wear them but we don't enforce it".  I was kinda shocked as that was a big time penalty back when I played.