Pop Warner fight: Everett Crimson Tide vs. East Lynn Homeless Beaters

Above is the latest viral youth sports outrage — an Oct. 25 fight between 11- and 12-year-old Pop Warner players representing Everett and East Lynn, Mass. Yes, it’s awful and unfortunate, although it wasn’t knock-down, drag-out to the point of police having to show up. (Those sirens you hear in the background make you wonder how quick the authorities are in Everett, Mass., except they’re going by on their way elsewhere.)

So while it was bad, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It appears to be kids getting chippy at the end of a title game that the Everett Pop Warner president, in a beautiful Boston accent, informed the local Fox affiliate was for “all the mahbles.” (The game was called with East Lynn winning, 25-0.)

However, in the Fox report, the report on the brawl took a bit of a jarring turn one minutes and four seconds in, when report Frank Mallicoat informs the audience of “what makes this fight even more alarming to parents.” Before the season, six 11- to 14-year-olds, “all of which are affiliated with the East Lynn Pop Warner football program,” were arrested on charges, including attempted murder, related to the beating of a homeless man in a Lynn park, a man allegedly targeted because of his Guatemalan ancestry. (Homeless beatings seem like kind of a Lynn thing. It was the third such assault in a month.)

As Mallicoat said, three of those players, after the July attack, practiced with their Pop Warner program with an additional piece of equipment — an ankle monitor. However, all were thrown out of the program before games started. Still, the implication remains: there are at least some people in the East Lynn Pop Warner program who don’t rule out hate crime-related attempted murder as a standard for its players. I don’t know about East Lynn, but I believe it meets the standards of most leagues: if the check clears, they’re in.