{"id":435878,"date":"2023-09-20T15:01:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T15:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/?p=435878"},"modified":"2023-09-20T15:01:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T15:01:53","slug":"gift-cards-made-alabama-high-school-football-team-to-forfeit-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/gift-cards-made-alabama-high-school-football-team-to-forfeit-the-game\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Gift Cards&#8221; Made Alabama High School Football Team To Forfeit The Game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A high school football team in Alabama has forfeited a victory after the school handed gift cards to several players.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8220;Gift Cards&#8221; Made Alabama High School Football Team To Forfeit The Game<\/h2>\n<p>Tuscaloosa County head coach Adam Winegarden stated the gift cards were given to the players following the team&#8217;s victory over Central-Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa County is a 7A team from Alabama that beat Bessemer City in Week 2 this season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We got a call from the (Alabama High School Athletic Association) that we had some athletes recognized by receiving some cards to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings,&#8221; Winegarden said via NJ.com. &#8220;Since they received those gift cards, it broke their status as amateur athletes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An Alabama high school football team was forced to forfeit a 22-point win after it was discovered a few players were awarded Buffalo Wings Wings gift cards.<\/p>\n<p>The worst part? The coach says the gift cards were never even used.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FnVlZX3D8B\">https:\/\/t.co\/FnVlZX3D8B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; OutKick (@Outkick) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Outkick\/status\/1704465438565171609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When the athletes got the presents, their status shifted from amateur to professional, which is against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxpreps.com\/al\/football\/\">Alabama High School Athletic Association guidelines.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the AHSAA&#8217;s Amateur Rule, only amateurs are permitted to compete in league-sanctioned tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Professionalism is defined as accepting remuneration, either directly or indirectly, for playing on athletic teams and in sports activities, or for playing under an assumed name,&#8221; according to the AHSAA.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Alabama high school football team forfeits games after players receive gift cards: &#39;This really stings&#39; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DUqR9rdCm3\">https:\/\/t.co\/DUqR9rdCm3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNews\/status\/1703010302021759472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Two of the kids who received the cards participated in Tuscaloosa County&#8217;s 55-33 win against Bessemer City in violation of the Amateur Rule because they were non-amateurs participating in a high school game, causing the school to lose its Sept. 1 victory.<\/p>\n<p>According to Winegarden, the AHSAA discovered the gift cards when another school informed the organization about Tuscaloosa County&#8217;s probable infraction. Some social media posts showed Tuscaloosa County athletes holding gift cards.<\/p>\n<p>Winegarden stated that he would have wanted to hear from the school that reported the suspected infringement before going to the organization.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An Alabama high school football team has been forced to forfeit a game after the school recognized players for their performances in a Week 1 win with gift cards from a restaurant, which is a direct violation of Rule I, Section 8(e) of the AHSAA Handbook. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fiTbiY8LsB\">https:\/\/t.co\/fiTbiY8LsB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Daniel S. Greene, Esq. (@DanGreene15) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanGreene15\/status\/1702701182316060774?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are really disappointed we didn\u2019t get a call from the school which turned us in,&#8221; Winegarden said. Following an appeals process, the student-athletes who received gift cards have been reinstated and are eligible to play, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tuscaloosa County&#8217;s overall record fell to 2-1. On Friday night, the team will face Hewitt-Trussville.<\/p>\n<p>According to AL.com, an anonymous school alerted the AHSAA of the probable rules violation based on social media posts, and Winegarden was dissatisfied that the school never contacted Tuscaloosa County.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/worldlive_live\/status\/1702855115751751752<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should be understood that the NCAA\u2019s NIL does NOT apply to current high school student-athletes,\u201d the memo from the AHSAA to the school said. \u201cCurrent high school student-athletes CANNOT earn money or accept money (cash, check, Venmo, Apple Pay, gift cards, checks, etc.) as a result of their connection to their high school team.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE-\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Know These Lesser known Facts About WNBA Star Sabrina Ionescu\" href=\"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/know-these-lesser-known-facts-about-wnba-star-sabrina-ionescu\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Know These Lesser-known Facts About WNBA Star Sabrina Ionescu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high school football team in Alabama has forfeited a victory after the school handed gift cards to several players. &#8220;Gift Cards&#8221; Made Alabama High School Football Team To Forfeit The Game Tuscaloosa County head coach Adam Winegarden stated the gift cards were given to the players following the team&#8217;s victory over Central-Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa County [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":435879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[15509,15510,15511],"class_list":["post-435878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-alabama-high-school-football-team","tag-alabama-high-school-football-team-gift-card","tag-football-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yebscore.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}