THEY PLAY BECAUSE THEY CAN
 
First published: Sunday, September 25, 2005
 
GREENBUSH -- They don't play the game of the week inside a modern Colosseum. Fans don't tailgate or rowdily gesticulate or experience heartache because of what the home football team has, or hasn't, done.  

Here, nobody knows the score. Some players do know the rules.  

They play the game of the week behind Genet Elementary School because no one's found a reason why kids and young adults with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome, why anyone who is blind or autistic, shouldn't feel an airstream of exhilaration as they tote a football into an end zone.

Today's NFL schedule pits New England vs. Pittsburgh, Brady and Belichick vs. Big Ben and Bill Cowher. It could be an unforgettable game.

Yet watch your first Pop Warner Challenger Division flag football game (Pop Warner's only Challenger football league), and you'll see something more memorable.

First, the rules.

Can't play a sport as complex as football without rules.

If needed, helpers push disabled players' wheelchairs or assist as they run; they may catch the football, then hand it to the disabled player. When a ballcarrier's or helper's flag is captured, the player is down.

There's no tackling. Usually. There've been a couple of tackles by overzealous or clumsy players in the league's three years, but nobody's suffered so much as a scratch or an overturned wheelchair.

They change positions on most plays. The field is 40 yards long. And before the season's over everyone scores at least one touchdown.

There are a few other rules, but part of the appeal is that they play as loose as a broken guitar string. So when coach Bill Aiello asks who in the huddle should be given the football the next play, and a player replies Jaime, the play is designed for Jaime Adams. She is unable to walk, talk or use her hands because of Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder that impairs her cognition and muscle control.

She is able to score a touchdown.

There's a talented 19-year-old quarterback with Down syndrome named Tom Mooney who wears tinted eyeglasses and likes to throw downfield. He tried out for Troy High's football team as a freshman, sweated through two-a-day practices like everyone else, but was asked not to play because of safety concerns, said his mother, Ani.

"He was devastated," Ani said. "Tom doesn't understand that he has Down syndrome. (So he'd ask) 'Why, Mom? What did I do wrong.' "

In that league Tom was considered a health risk.

In this league he's a star.

He flings TD passes and hawks for interceptions.

"It's guys like this that make the world a better place," Ani said of league organizers.

There's Kathleen Grace, a cuter-than-kittens 8-year-old who has Down syndrome. She wears a brace on a leg as thin as vermicelli, and a Dan Marino jersey. After she suffered a series of strokes and seizures three years ago caused by Moya-Moya syndrome -- a rare disorder that leads to blockage of the main blood vessels to the brain -- the left side of her body was paralyzed for a year.

"It's a miracle she's walking," said her mother, Mary.

She likes to watch her brother Patrick's football games as well as games on TV.

She likes to play football more.

The camaraderie here rivals what you'll see on any given Sunday. Players feel as if they can be themselves instead of filtering their words and actions, so if one player hugs another for so long you want to check for vital signs, no one thinks it's odd.

Between plays, when 14-year-old Jon Thomas asks his teammate, Alissa Hindes, "Do you like me? Do you like me as a friend?" you chuckle. The kid knows his playbook.

The league is raising money because its teams are invited to play at the Pop Warner Super Bowl at Walt Disney World, in December. The game of the week might inspire the startup of Challenger flag football leagues in other communities, and the trip would be a great experience for these kids.

Brian Ettkin can be reached at 454-5457 or by e-mail at bettkin@timesunion.com.