Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. >The Beddington High Football Championship by The Stranger Beddington Hight School -(TM)s Championship Football Season: Talent or Home Field Advantage Before I am accused of sour grapes, let me say that I have no one team in mind that should be champions instead. I also am not saying that the Beddington Bobcats have no talent. Along with winning every home game by a wide margin, the also won a majority of their away games and all games were hard fought. It is clear to me that Beddington would have had a winning season reguardless, but I just don -(TM)t think they were state champion caliber given the competing 2A schools. Frankly, in all my years covering local sports I had never seen a season like this, until I started covering Beddington sports. Just some background for those who may not know, people in the area usually refer to Beddington as -Betting Town -. Here, betting is taken very seriously. Any attempts to not pay out when a bet was lost could mean large fines or jail time depending on the real or perceived value of the payout. When a woman tried to challenge the law on the grounds of public decency statutes (she was to walk up and down her street nude, knocking on every door to tell them why she was naked), city ordinances were put in place that within city limits anything goes to pay a gambling debt outside of purposely injuring or killing another. Also because of this case, it was decided that the more embarrassing the payout, the more severe the punishment for not completing. The woman was told she would have to do her nude forfeit or face felony theft charges. I noticed the -home field advantage - in the first home game that I covered. A rather well-endowed blonde cheerleader named Stacey, had lost a wager and could wear nothing more than bra and panties for two weeks. It was just a pre-season scrimmage, but the results were easy to see. The young ladies undergarments were not made for her cheerleading moves causing many wardrobe malfunctions. I -(TM)m not sure, but there were so many false starts and sacks that the opposing team may have ended the game with negative yards gained. The first regular season game saw Beddington play a team expected to be a championship contender. Their quarterback and running back already had the attention of college recruiters. Unfortunately for this dynamic duo, a petite but shapely redhead named Vicki had bet that the scrimmage would be a close game (apparently she was dating a player on the other team) and had to cheer in this game naked. The quarterback threw more interceptions and the running back had more fumbles than in the rest of their high school careers combined. One of the college recruiters joked, -I wonder if we can recruit cheerleaders. That naked girl would get us a bowl game for sure. - The rest of the home games were also laughable. One team had to forfeit due to too few players as parents wouldn -(TM)t allow their boys to play in Beddington. One team -(TM)s coach was fired mid-season for having strippers at their practices -to get the boys ready to play in Beddington. - One team tried to get their own cheerleaders to cheer nude, or at least in skimpy bikinis, in Beddington to distract the other team. The parents of the cheerleaders wouldn -(TM)t allow their girls at any games after some girls complained to their parents. Homecoming outdid them all. As the story goes. The cheerleaders couldn -(TM)t accompany the team to their previous away game and were telling the boys that they would lose to such a good team without the cheerleaders there to distract the other team. The argument got heated and the wager was made. The boys went on to win a heart stopper in overtime by a field goal. Now the entire squad (including the cheer coach, a thirty-something blonde named Felicity) had to cheer the entire game wearing only their shoes. It was definitely a memorable halftime show. The other team could -(TM)ve stayed home and done better, at least their stats for the year would -(TM)ve been better. In summation, Beddington -(TM)s team has talent, and almost super-human focus, but they better include the cheer squad in the team championship photo. Uniform optional.