We will be really beat up--we already are-- having to wait until Thanksgiving for a bye after the regular season is already over. Our kids are not machines--their bodies do break down from the pounding they take. Even if one of our student athletes does not suffer a season-ending injury, a bye week will allow our kids to heal up and rest up so they are more effective both on the field and in the classroom. Now in addition to Gentry and Loud, I think Brady Beaner went out of Saturday's game and didn't return, and Micah Harper stayed in the game but didn't look close to 100 %. I think we also had at least 2 more DB's out because Riley and Greg said on the radio they were not suited up for Saturday's game because they were hurt.
I hope going forward that we will always have a bye just like the NFL--the NFL players while being mainly older, bigger, faster and stronger than our kids still have a regular-season bye week--they need to rest and recover as well because football is a brutal game !!! ( I will always remember as an 11-12 year old kid in the last century playing DT in Little Guy football because I was a fat little turd when I tackled this RB from the other team, and I accidentally broke his leg. His dad carried him off the field with his right leg dangling oddly as it was snowing, and when I returned to the sidelines, my bloodthirsty coach was patting me on the back, congratulating me because not only did I break this kid's leg, I had his blood on the front of my old-school cage face mask, and my coach walked me up and down the sidelines to show my fellow players and their parents this poor kid's blood on my helmet.)
While injuries are going to happen with or without a bye, I think fewer will occur with a bye because our kids will have a chance to rest and recover after playing roughly half the season--5 to 7 games-- as opposed to playing 12 straight like us. . If byes didn't help a team and its players, the NFL wouldn't have them. !!!
