Uniontown melee could result in harsh PIAA penalties

By now, sports fans throughout the tristate area are aware of the wild melee that broke out during Friday night’s Uniontown-Meadville PIAA playoff game.

With just over three minutes to play and Meadville clinging to a 63-55 lead, the District 10 champions were called for a technical foul.

However, those free throws were never shot by the Red Raiders. A brawl in the stands behind Meadville’s bench ended up spilling on to the court and involved fans as well as players from both teams.

It took a while to sort the situation out. However, the officials didn’t wait around as they called the game off at that point and awarded the win to Meadville.

But this situation is nowhere near over.

The PIAA will undoubtedly have to issue penalties and sanctions against both schools, and it will be interesting to see where that decision goes.

Will the Bulldogs be forced to play their next playoff game without players who left the bench to take part in the fracas?

Will fans be permitted to attend that next game?

Will Meadville even be involved in that game?

The incident was caught on video and circulated on the internet quickly and it certainly was not pretty.

Reports from the game stated that at least two fans were handcuffed and taken from the gym by police.

I’m sure the fallout won’t stop there.

For now, Meadville (17-8) is scheduled to meet District 3 champion Hershey (22-3) in the second round Tuesday, so time is of the essence for some type of ruling by the PIAA.

Nothing the PIAA decides to do would surprise me unless the governing body hands both schools a mere slap on the wrist.

There are so many ways the PIAA can go with this, starting with censoring both schools and putting them on probation and possibly as harsh as making the Bulldogs forfeit Tuesday’s game.

There are other options, including playing the game in front of no fans. But how fair would that be for the folks from Hershey who faithfully follow their team?

Stay tuned.

This could be interesting and almost as ugly as Friday’s riot.

Confusing times for Steelers

Speaking of cluster-youknow- whats, what has happened to the Steelers?

All we ever hear is how players want to play for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

Yet, since last season, time and again skill players on the offensive side of the ball have been courted by the Steelers and nobody of importance has yet to say yes and join the team.

Either players want to pay for Tomlin, or they don’t.

Which is it? The fact is the power Tomlin has been allowed to garner with owner Art Rooney II despite no success in the last decade outside of never finishing under .500, has pretty much ruined this franchise.

As long as Tomlin is allowed to continue to do things his way (i.e. coaching, drafting and developing players), the Steelers will never be considered serious contenders around the NFL again.

Long known as a defensive genius, Tomlin has overseen the Steelers defense and that unit — despite being the highest paid defense in the league — has been inconsistent and overrated.

But where the problem really is getting out of hand is on the offensive side of the ball.

In a league where teams are producing more offense than ever before, Tomlin still tries to win games 10-7.

He brought in a new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, last season. But, he has not let Smith run his offense. Instead, Smith is running Tomlin’s style of safe, unimaginative, boring offense.

We are seeing more and more that the Steelers are not a destination for skill position players of any type of ilk because of that.

Tomlin is just so filled with himself and his tendencies that he won’t change.

So maybe the team won’t ever finish under-.500 under his watch.

But they probably won’t win a playoff game, let alone a Lombardi Trophy, either.

Anyone with any thoughts, opposing views or comments on this column can reach Jeff Oliver by emailing justjto@verizon.