Roby-Wichita Christian game controversy

I'm not sure this one will ever be officially handled. I think it will always depend on who you ask. If you ask me, I'd say if a team walks off the field in the middle of a game, it's a forfeit. Maybe Roby was the better team on the field that day...they were winning...but I think Roby's coach said it best when he said "with eight minutes left, no one knows how that game is going to end".
 
There is nobody that can say confidently that Roby was the better team. WCS had a couple TO’s in the first half. Roby could not stop 8 for WCS. The game was going to come down to if WCS could get a stop in the last 8 minutes. With Roby QB ejected, it is certainly possible that they could have gotten a stop, given you could hear Roby HC say to white hat “that’s my QB, how am I supposed to run an offense” (but it’s about player safety??).

Roby HC is right about 1 thing, we don’t know what would have happened. But he robbed both teams of what was going to be a great finish to a great game! To call it anything other than a Roby forfeit is laughable.
 
Roby coach gave a piss poor excuse in that interview. If hes worried about "players safety" against Wichita Christian, good luck against the #1 ranked team in D2 and then that gauntlet of a district... I think he knew he was going to end up losing and didn't want to give the satisfaction to Wichita Christian since roby was up 74-60 in the 4th. He can pretend his team won but he quit on them, the community, and I'm surprised Roby ISD hasnt asked for the coach to resign after the move he pulled. Smh
 
Said it before, it's pretty black and white...you walk off the field you forfeit.

Only circumstance I can see is if there is extreme and obvious danger (fans rioting on the field for example) then it would be a forfeit by the home team and the refs are who makes those calls I believe. Refs in this case gave the forfeit win to WFC.

Tell me this...if a team is winning the state game at the start of the 4th quarter and then decides not to play anymore and goes home...are they state champions? No one would every say they were...it would be a forfeit.

I dont think there is any controversy about the result of the game. You walk off you forfeit...it's pretty black and white.

The debate and conversation to have is when is it ok and necessary to sacrifice a POSSIBLE win (bc there was almost a full quarter left to play so cant say who would have won a close game here) because you as a coach or admin feels it's unsafe for your players and staff. If I understand this right this is what Roby officials are claiming.

This is not the first time this has happened. Tioga did the same thing in 2017 when they were playing at Fort Worth THESA. Tioga kneed out the ball to end the half and then went home...and I believe Tioga was ahead. That was also a forfeit win for THESA.

Roby coach said (quoted in the paper) the win or loss is the least important thing in this ordeal. Which to me means they felt that player/staff safety in their own judgment of the situation was more important than winning. Which is perfectly ok and noble and hats off to them for making that tough call. But it doesn't change the fact it is a forfeit.
 
Tory Tillman said:
Roby coach gave a piss poor excuse in that interview. If hes worried about "players safety" against Wichita Christian, good luck against the #1 ranked team in D2 and then that gauntlet of a district... I think he knew he was going to end up losing and didn't want to give the satisfaction to Wichita Christian since roby was up 74-60 in the 4th. He can pretend his team won but he quit on them, the community, and I'm surprised Roby ISD hasnt asked for the coach to resign after the move he pulled. Smh
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To be fair, if a game is out of hand it really doesn't matter who the opponent is where player safety is concerned. Playing against the #1 ranked team in a good, clean game is much safer than playing against the #200 ranked team in a dirty game where the refs let anything go. Not saying that's what was happening in this game...but it's silly to automatically assume players are more unsafe just because they're playing against better teams.

Also, I don't blame the coach for walking off if he and/or Roby's administration felt the player's safety was at risk. I like to hope all coaches would do the same thing. However, if that is the case...if player safety is more important than the win, which should always be the case, just say so and accept the forfeit. It's pretty clear from everything I've read that everyone outside of Roby sees it as a forfeit and there's certainly no shame in taking a loss to keep your players safe.
 
Mike said:
To be fair, if a game is out of hand it really doesn't matter who the opponent is where player safety is concerned. Playing against the #1 ranked team in a good, clean game is much safer than playing against the #200 ranked team in a dirty game where the refs let anything go. Not saying that's what was happening in this game...but it's silly to automatically assume players are more unsafe just because they're playing against better teams.

Also, I don't blame the coach for walking off if he and/or Roby's administration felt the player's safety was at risk. I like to hope all coaches would do the same thing. However, if that is the case...if player safety is more important than the win, which should always be the case, just say so and accept the forfeit. It's pretty clear from everything I've read that everyone outside of Roby sees it as a forfeit and there's certainly no shame in taking a loss to keep your players safe.
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The only issue is that player safety was only in question because of multiple Roby late hits and blindside blocks. The WCS fan on chains was removed immediately and that was the end of it. Everyone near the field heard Roby HC say what I quoted above “thats my QB, how am I supposed to run an offense?”

WCS didn’t have any ejections… while the last play of the game that got the Roby QB ejected sent a WCS kid to the hospital. If he was so worried about player safety he should teach his kids how to play the game safely and not walk away when a ref attempts to hold him and his team accountable for reckless play. Why was the ejection the last straw? How did that put his players’ safety in question.

Truthfully, neither team was “dirty!” it was a physical game And both teams seemed to be talking some trash, but that’s football. The quit seemed to come for no other reason than he lost his QB.
 
reed21 said:
Truthfully, neither team was “dirty!” it was a physical game And both teams seemed to be talking some trash, but that’s football. The quit seemed to come for no other reason than he lost his QB.
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I should have been more clear. I wasn't saying that this was a dirty game. I wasn't there so I really have no idea how the game was played. I was simply trying to say that the ranking of a team is meaningless to the safety of a game as was insinuated in the comment I was replying to.
 
Mike said:
I should have been more clear. I wasn't saying that this was a dirty game. I wasn't there so I really have no idea how the game was played. I was simply trying to say that the ranking of a team is meaningless to the safety of a game as was insinuated in the comment I was replying to.
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I understand. I was just adding to the point and trying to provide some more context as to why everyone was shocked by the decision in the moment.
 
Leman Saunders said:
I will add I have seen the play and tackle that the player was ejected for and on it's own I dont think the tackle was ejection worthy (I dont think the player had any other personal fouls either) but that is just my opinion and I was not there
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Here’s my question. Does the Roby QB have to sit the next game because of the ejection? Even thought the game was against a non-UIL opponent? Is that a UIL rule? Or a general HS football rule?
 
Maury P said:
Here’s my question. Does the Roby QB have to sit the next game because of the ejection? Even thought the game was against a non-UIL opponent? Is that a UIL rule? Or a general HS football rule?
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Yes, if he was ejected. Has to sit a half the next game. The Coach from Roby imo, made it about himself. Not the team, not the community, but his pure selfishness. To not allow a kid or kids to "step-up" aka next man up when you have many other players on the sideline that want to play, would discourage me as a parent, administrator, or an athlete. Roby lost because the coach didn't want to finish the game with less than 8 minutes left? Cmon man, give me a break... This is 6man!
Give him a participation ribbon.
 
Leman Saunders said:
I will add I have seen the play and tackle that the player was ejected for and on it's own I dont think the tackle was ejection worthy (I dont think the player had any other personal fouls either) but that is just my opinion and I was not there
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All it takes is one personal foul that is deemed to be flagrant. You can have 50 personal fouls and not be ejected but if just one is deemed to be flagrant they are ejected.
 
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