HISTORY HUDDLE: January 1, 2025 – Want to “invoke” some new rules for the new millennium? Have your chuckles with this flashback

Welcome to the first FloridaHSFootball.com History Huddle, a new daily column that gives you a flashback into high school football and girls’ flag football history in the Sunshine State each day.

For 2025, everything in the History Huddle will focus on 2000, which happens to be 25 years ago. If you are reading this and shaking your head at the fact it has been 25 years since 2000, then you are certainly one who has likely seen everything as I did.

If you remember, in 1999, everyone wondered what would happen once Y2K came to be. Would things go amiss, or would things continue to hum to the tune as they had always been, except the year starting with a “2” instead of a “1”?

When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000, computers continued functioning as usual; nothing went amiss, and no apocalypse occurred. Since then, many technological advances have occurred, from smartphones to high-definition television, and now artificial intelligence, better known as AI, is coming to us at full speed.

Now, 25 years later, let’s stroll down memory lane with this column called “Some new rules to start living by” by Tom Rife, which we came across in the Naples Daily News 25 years ago. Rife was the sports editor for the Naples Daily News at the time.

Rife, who based his column on the new millennium, wanted to “invoke” a few new rules that would keep things on track as the sports world rocketed into the next 1,000 years. I will focus on high school sports excerpts without edits with an image to the entire column via the Naples Daily News archives on Newspapers.com.

• From here on out, high school basketball coaches will be required to wear technologically advanced seat belts during games. The belts will be designed so that they are synchronized with the scoreboard clock and unlock only when time has expired at the end of each quarter of play. Otherwise, coaches will remain on their respective benches as though their trousers are made of industrial-strength flypaper.

• From here on out, any athlete (pro, college, high school, preschool, etc.) found guilty of living in a bubble will be sentenced to play quarterback under Coach Steve Spurrier at the University of Flawida. (Warning! Second offenders will be forwarded on to Indiana University and Coach Bob Knight!)

• From here on out, parents found to be guilty of whining because their kid isn’t getting enough playing time will be assigned to Dick Vitale’s stylist for a mandatory makeover.

• From here on out, all high school football games (not just those between Barron Collier and Naples High) will be played without goal posts. Instead, high-tech laser beams and computers will be used to track the speed and trajectory of the ball much the same way the government keeps an eye on aliens and UFOs in and around Area 51.

Imagine what Rife was thinking 25 years ago, wanting to invoke these new rules, and how much simpler things were in high school sports at the time, before social media was even a thought.

Just wow!

Do you have a suggestion for our History Huddle feature you want us to investigate or focus on? Email Publisher Joshua Wilson at joshua.wilson@floridahsfootball.com or Associate Editor Christopher Lyke at chris.lyke@floridahsfootball.com.