COFFEETOWN HS SPORTS

A TikTok challenge ruined a high school football game in Savannah, Ga. It may be time to fire this app into the sun.

Benedictine Military School led 42-0 at Jenkins High on Friday, August 18th when pandemonium erupted in the stands.

Apparently, a TikTok challenge floating around out there in scrollville encourages people to act as if there is an emergent event.

The goal is to simulate chaos. Lead people to believe there is imminent harm or danger, stir the pot, and create a scene.

The game officially ended, BC (as the locals refer to Benedictine) got the 42-0 win and went home after just two quarters and change.

Tonight’s Benedictine and Jenkins game called early due to multiple crowd disruptions.

Preliminary information suggests the disruptive behavior was a result of a TikTok challenge by a group of spectators that was designed to create the impression of a large chaotic incident.

— Frank Sulkowski WJCL (@TheBigGuyWJCL) August 19, 2023

The fans who went along with this clout-chasing catastrophe didn’t need a TikTok challenge to inspire their shenanigans

BC rolling up on your home turf and winning 42-0 in the season opener is plenty reason for distress.

I can understand if it naturally caused a few dozen people to panic.

If this is game one, what will the rest of the season look like?

But it’s the TikTok challenge aspect that has me yelling at clouds like Clint Eastwood on his front porch in Gran Torino.

If you’ll allow another fictional old man reference, I’ll cite Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in Cormac McCarthy’s / The Cohen Brothers’ ‘No Country for Old Men’:

“One of the things you realize about gettin older is that not ever’body is goin to get older with you.”

Which is kind of what Wooderson said in ‘Dazed and Confused,’ but for totally different reasons.

“That’s what I love about these girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.” movie – Dazed and Confused pic.twitter.com/X74yUfNmj0

— Got Pickup?™ Gary PUA 👊😎 The game strategist (@GotPickup) June 5, 2023

Anyway, I don’t categorically hate what TikTok does for high school football

There are plenty of hilarious memes and TikTok challenge materials that celebrate the game.

There’s a lot to celebrate about the game and its purity in a world where the sport is flush with money and conference realignment and individualism.

I just know that now, there will be more where this came from in the ‘lack of wisdom and discretion’ department.

And it ain’t right. It ain’t natural. People have been idiots in high school football stands for a long time.

But they did it to impress a girl or make life hell for the administrators or because the opposing quarterback got mauled by a wild boar the week before.

They didn’t do it for likes on an app from people they will never know.

To quote Bell again,

“People complain about the bad things that happen to em that they don’t deserve but they seldom mention the good. About what they done to deserve them things.”

We don’t deserve many of the wonderful things high school football gives us.

Doesn’t mean we gotta make a bunch of TikToks to prove it.