High school football used to be a big deal in Western Pennsylvania. Not just in selected communities, but everywhere.

Now it’s come down to negotiated surrender.

Baldwin and Fox Chapel high schools have teams so bad that they’ve contacted opponents about playing shorter games: eight-minute quarters instead of 12 minutes, a running clock in the second half. Safety is said to be a major concern. Avoiding shame remains mostly unspoken.

Such measures didn’t help when Fox Chapel played Pine-Richland last Friday: Pine-Richland won 63-3.

This was instigated by administration. Adults have a knack for embarrassing kids. (Fox Chapel’s players reportedly found out about the shortened quarters via social media.)

A Fox Chapel player told WTAE-TV that abbreviating the game was akin to giving up before it starts.

Fox Chapel is 2-4. So, it begs for mercy selectively.

The Foxes beat Baldwin, 48-14, earlier this season. Baldwin is 0-6, with its closest defeat by that margin, 34 points. Baldwin has lost 25 straight.

Fox Chapel isn’t short on players: 49 suited up vs. Pine-Richland. Baldwin has 30 on its roster. The safety concern seems more legit for Baldwin.

Rosters have shrunk throughout Western Pennsylvania football. Not sure why. It’s a bitter old man’s viewpoint to say that today’s kids aren’t tough, don’t commit, don’t follow through, would rather play video games. But that bitter old man might be right.

Football has been demonized because of horror stories involving concussions, CTE, etc.

Parents watch football every Sunday. But many don’t want their children to play it.

It’s trending that some prominent high-school athletes play just one sport, hoping that focus will allow them to heighten success at their chosen game.

That’s foolish.

Most of those athletes won’t play professionally or even do much at the collegiate level. Better to maximize your high school experience. Create as many memories as possible.

This is a difficult situation. There’s no easy resolution.

You can’t let the kids decide. Because they’re kids. But maybe they should, anyway.

Fox Chapel proposes a system that divides teams into leagues based on competitive balance. But how do you rate who’s good and bad? Who does it? Sandbagging would be inevitable.

Schools can find competitive balance on their own. Drop out of the WPIAL, play independently and schedule foes with talent and numbers on a similar level. Butler did that. Butler was once a WPIAL powerhouse.

I covered high school football for most of two decades.

It’s something that was once revered in Western Pennsylvania and still should be.

So, play regulation games.

Don’t shorten quarters. It looks ridiculous. I bet it feels ridiculous, too. How does a high school football player explain to his friends that the game was condensed, in advance, because his team stinks? And the game was a blowout, anyway.

The WPIAL and PIAA have a rule that running time is played in the second half when one team leads by 35 or more. Go with that. That’s enough.

The other option: don’t play. Fold your program.

If you don’t have the numbers or talent, it’s more honorable to not field a team than it is to beg for mercy. It’s better to ditch something than to ruin it.

Don’t just play so the band can perform at halftime. (That’s a bigger concern than you’d think.)

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