A pretty bizarre story out of Mississippi today, but then again, every story that comes out of Mississippi is bizarre. Anyway, it seems that Walnut High School in Mississippi has a playoff game tonight in the Class 2A quarterfinals. Or they might not if lawyers for the parents of the team they beat the previous week (Leland High) can successfully petition the state supreme court to overturn a lower court ruling and put their school back in the playoffs.

Everyone on board?

All right, so why exactly is this happening? Well, last week Walnut was leading Leland High School in the final seconds of their second-round playoff game. Leland had the ball on the 33-yard-line on the final play of the game, when their quarterback ran down the field to the 15, then threw an illegal forward pass to the goal line, where it hit the ground and was picked up by a teammate, who then ran it into the end zone as time expired.

Completely illegal play. Game should have been over. However, officials ruled an illegal forward pass (correct) and gave Walnut the choice of accepting the penalty or the result of the play, a game-winning touchdown (wha, wha, wha?).

How on earth can an illegal play count as a game winning touchdown? I have no idea. So anyway, Walnut obviously chose to accept the penalty - again, the game should have been over by then - and guess what happened?



As you can guess, Walnut was sort of ticked about losing a game that they in no way shape or form should have lost. So they complained to the complained to the state athletic association. The commission almost unanimously agreed that Walnut got hosed on an epic scale, so they reversed the ruling on the field and gave the game to Walnut, putting them back in the playoff picture, and knocking Leland out. So Leland of course sued and lost, and now they're reportedly appealing their loss to the state supreme court only hours before kickoff of Walnut's playoff game.

In fact, the head of the Mississippi High School Activities Association says that if Leland wins, he's just going to call the entire playoffs off.

And just to top it all off, one Leland mother said this:

"The children are devastated. We're going to have to call in a counselor to speak with these kids so they don't fall into a state of depression."

Really? For once someone an athletic association finally has the balls to reverse a completely asinine call, and we still have dumbasses complaining about, and complaining that their kids might fall into a state of depression. Shut up.

It's time the idiots at Leland learned that life isn't always fair, or I guess in this case, that it actually is fair and that they're where they belong - at home on the damn couch.

Leland parents' bid denied by Hines judge. [The Clarion-Ledger]
Football refs really fouled up in Leland. [The Clarion-Ledger]
via [Deadspin]