[Reginald Rutledge]

The DFW Miniature Football League has been long known for what is known as "The Peanut Gallery". This name was officially tabbed by LeRon King, one of our coaches from Huntington, West Virginia. Although his moniker of this group was less than 5 years ago, "The Peanut Gallery" has unofficially been in place since 1995 when the league started.

"The Peanut Gallery" are the hecklers of the league, the arm chair quarterbacks, who sit high up in the stands of stadiums and second-guess every call a head coach makes. This is one of those true test of concentrations that a coach must have because the heckling is aimed at both the winning and losing coach. This is one of those things we do in jest, just having fun and keeping the game lively. We actually encourage it because it brings a human-side to playing the game. It gets the coaches to show a part of their personality that they otherwise would not do. We even ask coaches, "Do you have thick skin?" That's a pretty requisite in being apart of the DFW League.

All coaches must endure this constant barrage of ridicule and tomfoolery by other coaches/fans. Many guys come out to games just to be apart of the shenanigans. Some guys will ride 45 minutes from their home to see the game and know, there will be some other guys in the stands thinking just like them. Nothing like this ever escalates into violence or bad-blood. It's just a part of what goes on in the DFW. It's become such a fun thing that my friend out in the LAEF (David Campbell) may be getting an order from the DFW to do some "The Peanut Gallery" shirts.

My question to you coaches is, "Is this whimsical, foolish, skullduggery, comical behavior tolerated at your games or do you keep it prim and proper?

Reg