Legless Football Player Returns To Field

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DAYTON, Ohio -- A high school football player with no legs took the field Saturday for the first time since being removed in a previous game by a referee.

Colonel White High School senior Bobby Martin, who was born without legs, was sidelined Sept. 16 during a game against Mount Healthy for not being fully equipped.


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Martin had played in his team's previous three games as a member of the punt return squad, using his arms to move down the field.

"(The referee) said, 'No, he's not fully equipped.' I said, 'How? What do you mean?' 'He doesn't have shoes on. He doesn't have kneepads on,'" said Colonel White assistant football coach Kerry Ivy.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association said game officials made a mistake when they kept Martin from playing.

The officials said Martin was violating a rule that requires players to wear shoes, thigh pads and kneepads.

"The officials erred, but they erred on the side of caution," said Bob Goldring, an assistant commissioner with the OHSAA. "They did not want to see him get hurt."

Martin and Colonial White appealed the decision to the OHSAA.

The senior was cleared to play in Saturday's game against Belmont High School.

Martin said the episode left him perplexed.

"It's the first time in my life I ever felt like that," said Martin. "Everybody was looking at me, talking about what I didn't have. I felt like a clown. I hated it. I just wanted to know why it was different this game than all the rest."

 

[Tylanner]

thats fvcking sad

 

[Rogue]

Am I the only one that thinks it's absolutely ironic that a legless player who was born that way was kicked out of a game against a school named "Mount Healthy"? I can't be, right? I mean, WTF???

 

[daveymark]

It's a good thing that ref didn't get sued, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court

 

[Powermoloch]

WHAT THE FVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVCK :Q

 

[Tommunist]

the real question is how can he possibly be any good? he has some huge disadvantages when it comes to football:

1. lack of body mass = he isn't going to be very hard to knock out of the way
2. knees to the face and crushed hands = ouch
3. no possible way he can move as fast as someone with legs

i wish there was some video of this guy...

 

[dullard]

One more example of a zero tolerance type rule. No leeway and you mess up everything. All rules should have flexibility and conform to the situation at hand. But no, people had to pass a sh!tload of inflexible rules in the late 90s / early 2000s.

 

[purbeast0]

wow ... thats pretty impressive. I would feel wierd playing against him though if I was on the other team.

 

[daveymark]

it's about time that kid decides to take a stand against these refs

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: Tommunist
the real question is how can he possibly be any good? he has some huge disadvantages when it comes to football:

1. lack of body mass = he isn't going to be very hard to knock out of the way
2. knees to the face and crushed hands = ouch
3. no possible way he can move as fast as someone with legs

i wish there was some video of this guy...

also, how is he actuall "down" if he has the ball? He doesn't have any knees to touch the ground. I mean I know if his back or belly touches I'm sure he's down, but there are plenty of times where a player WITH legs will hold himself up from touching his knees to the ground w/his arm. So what if this guy is "falling" over and holding himself up with his arm?

I mean if it was a person w/legs they probably would have their knees touching the ground at that point. I dunno, kinda strange.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: daveymark
It's a good thing that ref didn't get sued, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court

I'm sure being on the football team really keeps Bobby on his toes

Bobby's teammates say that during the football games, he really puts his best foot forward

Luckily Bobby wasn't too angry with the ref....he took it all in stride

...shall I go on??

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: Tommunist
the real question is how can he possibly be any good? he has some huge disadvantages when it comes to football:

1. lack of body mass = he isn't going to be very hard to knock out of the way
2. knees to the face and crushed hands = ouch
3. no possible way he can move as fast as someone with legs

i wish there was some video of this guy...

also, how is he actuall "down" if he has the ball? He doesn't have any knees to touch the ground. I mean I know if his back or belly touches I'm sure he's down, but there are plenty of times where a player WITH legs will hold himself up from touching his knees to the ground w/his arm. So what if this guy is "falling" over and holding himself up with his arm?

I mean if it was a person w/legs they probably would have their knees touching the ground at that point. I dunno, kinda strange.

I think it's a safe assumption that his role on the punt return team does not include actually carrying the ball, which probably has him blocking, and his low center of gravity probably makes him not half bad at it!

 

[HumblePie]

I thought they were using him as the kick stand? Err ball holder for the place kick.

 

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: TheNinja

Originally posted by: daveymark
It's a good thing that ref didn't get sued, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court

I'm sure being on the football team really keeps Bobby on his toes

Bobby's teammates say that during the football games, he really puts his best foot forward

Luckily Bobby wasn't too angry with the ref....he took it all in stride

...shall I go on??

yes. yes, you shall.

 

[TheNinja]

Originally posted by: daveymark

Originally posted by: TheNinja

Originally posted by: daveymark
It's a good thing that ref didn't get sued, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court

I'm sure being on the football team really keeps Bobby on his toes

Bobby's teammates say that during the football games, he really puts his best foot forward

Luckily Bobby wasn't too angry with the ref....he took it all in stride

...shall I go on??

yes. yes, you shall.

I'm glad to see that Bobby stood his ground on this issue

I'm glad Bobby didn't start swearing at the ref, I'm sure he would have regretted it later and would have wondered why he stuck his foot in his mouth.

Seriously, I think he is just side-stepping the real issue here.

 

[PimpJuice]

that crap is annoying........theres no way hes better then a person with all limbs present. Im tired of these people getting sympathy for doing things that they really should not be out there doing.

If he was big enough to be out there though, hopefully hes big enough to take in the whole game (i.e. getting knocked off his feet.....er hands?), because I wouldnt hesitate to run him over on a football field.

/jackass

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

isn't he automatically down if he doesn't have legs to stand on?

 

[So]

Originally posted by: daveymark
it's about time that kid decides to take a stand against these refs

:laugh:

 

[brxndxn]

I think if he's good enough to play, he can play. I just know that I've been cut from teams I've tried out for.. and I would certainly have never made my local public high school's football team.. so he better not be taking a spot away from someone that is better than him.

This reminds me of St. Stephen's (a rival high school) soccer team.. They let a kid with bent legs and arms (I dunno what his syndrome is called) play. They were beating my team 3-0 so they put this kid in the game. Every time he would get the ball, no one on my team would go after him 100%. It was pissing me off because 3-0 isn't exactly a blowout in soccer. The crowd (even though this was a home game at my high school) was cheering the handicapped kid like crazy.

When he came near me with the ball, I charged him 100% and took the ball (completely fair play by Fifa rules) and knocked him on his ass. The crowd boo'd me and the referee blew the whistle and gave me a yellow card. When I complained, the referee said 'If you took the ball away from anyone else like that, there wouldn't be a whistle.' That pissed me off so much. It's not fair if they change the rules of gameplay around someone's handicap...

Later in the game, they finally took the handicapped kid out. The final score ended up being 3-2.. a fairly close game.


IMO, allowing a kid that doesn't have pads because he doesn't have arms and legs does NOT change gameplay. However, doing something like calling 'unsportsmanlike' every time the kid is tackled, DOES change gameplay...

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Tommunist
the real question is how can he possibly be any good? he has some huge disadvantages when it comes to football:

1. lack of body mass = he isn't going to be very hard to knock out of the way
2. knees to the face and crushed hands = ouch
3. no possible way he can move as fast as someone with legs

i wish there was some video of this guy...

Legless Wrestling Champ

• United States (AP) - Nick Ackerman didn't ask for any breaks in the Simpson College wrestling room, nor did he get any.
  
  OK, a team-mate or coach did give him a boost so he could reach the chin-up bar, but there was a good reason. Ackerman has no legs.
  
  What he does have is a national championship. Ackerman, whose legs were amputated at the knees when he was 18 months old, won the NCAA Division III championship at 174 pounds last weekend to top a 38-4 season.
  
  "For him to have the type of tournament he had, against the quality of kids in that bracket, and in the championship match defeat the defending national champion, I don't think it's going to fully set in for any of us for a long time," Simpson coach Ron Peterson said.
  
  "He had every reason not to go out and put himself in those situations," Peterson said. "But his attitude is, 'I don't have a disability, I have ability and I'm going to use it,' and he certainly has."
  
  Doctors had to amputate Ackerman's legs to stop a fast-moving form of bacterial meningitis that threatened his life, and he has undergone 25 operations since then. He gets around on artificial legs when he's not wrestling, a sport he took up as part of his quest to lead a life that's as normal as possible.
  
  "I always thought I was normal," Ackerman said. "I used to break the legs off my G.I. Joe guys to make them look like me, a bunch of stupid stuff like that, because I always thought I was the normal one." Now he's just your normal college senior looking forward to graduation, albeit one who was more talented and determined than most on the wrestling mat.
  
  He'll get a degree in environmental science and hopes to go into conservation work or become a park ranger. As long as it's outdoors, Ackerman will be happy.
  
  He grew up in the country near Colfax, about 25 miles east of Des Moines. The woods and fields were his playground. "I live for hunting and fishing,'' he said. "That's all there is."
  
  Wrestlers start a match on their feet. Ackerman looks like he's kneeling when he starts. He goes for one of the opponent's legs and, once he gets a grip, works his way to the upper body and tries to wrap the wrestler in a cradle, with one arm between the legs. In that position, Ackerman is so strong he usually can turn the opponent onto his back. He did that well enough to record 13 pins this season. A disadvantage is that Ackerman can't use his legs for leverage or to wrap around an opponent. He compensates with the strength in his shoulders and arms. He also has an advantage against wrestlers he never faced before because they weren't quite sure how to attack him. Ackerman won his title with a 13-11 victory over Augsburg's Nick Slack, who had been unbeaten and was favoured to repeat as the champion. Slack caught Ackerman from behind and took him down for an early 2-0 lead. Ackerman quickly rolled out of it, however, and soon had the advantage.
  
  "I knew the roll was there," he said. "I just waited on that, hit it and I was up 8-2 before I knew it. After that I just had to try to hang on and try to keep attacking."
  
  The crowd of 2,500 at the finals gave Ackerman a standing ovation, and Slack walked across the mat to congratulate him. The two talked for several minutes. Ackerman succeeded with tremendous upper body strength. With his long, muscular arms, he could wrap up an opponent like a snake coiling around its prey.
  
  "That's been my whole thing, upper body work because, well, that's all I had," Ackerman said. "I worked at that forever, even pig farming. I worked on a neighbour's farm that had pigs," he said. "We had horses. I used to show horses at the fair." Ackerman got around well enough on his artificial legs that he tried about every sport in junior high school.
  
  Once he got to Colfax-Mingo High, he became smitten with wrestling. As a senior, he finished sixth in the state at 152 and became a crowd favourite at the state tournament.
  
  But even that left him a little empty, so he joined the team at Simpson, which is 15 miles south of Des Moines in Indianola. "It wasn't bad," Ackerman said. "It was way more than I expected then. But I wanted to do more. I didn't want to end like that. I wanted to write a better ending." And so he did.

 

[Yossarian]

It would be pretty embarrassing to get blocked or tackled by a kid with no legs. You would never live that down.

 

[Tylanner]

I'll jam your legs so far up your ass you'll get a your own sympathy spot on the football team.

 

[slpaulson]

I hope that dude at least has nubs for legs.
Either that, or he's missing his balls too... or in a lot of pain.

 

[mercanucaribe]

This is BS. What kind of pussified world do we live in. I didn't get to play football in high school. You know why? Because I suck at sports. You didn't see me whining that I was different and felt like a clown.

This kid has a tough life ahead of him if he can't accept the fact that he doesn't have legs, and wants everyone to bend over backwards so he doesn't get his feelings hurt. Guess what kid, you don't just feel different. You ARE different. You HAVE NO LEGS.

Edit: If punt return squads don't do anything, nevermind.