Sports can be very rewarding in a lot of ways. You can get health, self-esteem, friendship, accomplishments, glory, but most of all you can have a lot of fun. If playing is not fun, it isn't something anyone should do. Sometimes, overly obsessive and aggressive coaches can, and often do, take the fun out of the game. "Fight Team Fight" was not the greatest or most entertaining episode of the Little House on The Prairie series (which aired in the show's seventh season, just around the time quality of the series began to decline rapidly) but it does send a valuable message: it's more important to be morally correct than to win.
Pete Ellerbee has returned to Walnut Grove, where he grew up, after retiring "from a successful business back east." Ellerbee was an exceptional college football player at Rutgers, and was so good and tough that he'd been nicknamed "Big Rock." Nels Oleson who played against Ellerbee when he was at Princeton, welcomes him back to town and volunteers to step down as coach and let Ellerbee take the helm (this is a flaw in the historical accuracy of the show, as college football wasn't played until 1869, and these two men were much too old to have played).
Ellerbee's interest in football is really an obsession. He works the boys extremely hard in practice, their grades begin to decline, and he doesn't seem to care about injuries. He thinks that playing with pain is "part of football." He perceives football to be the main priority in everyone's whole life, rather than just one part of it.
This obsession leads to confrontations with his family, Charles Ingalls, and Mrs Wilder, the schoolteacher. When he confronts her saying the she should cut down on homework during football season to make the game easier for the boys to play, Mrs Wilder tells him, correctly, that "football is an extracurricular activity" and that he should be making practices shorter, as the education of the students is more important. He storms out like a spoiled child and refuses to listen to reason.
Perhaps the greatest lesson comes in the next part of the episode, when Albert Ingalls injures his ribs in practice. Albert's father Charles agrees to let him play in the first game, after a little pressure from Coach Ellerbee, and admits that "it's against my better judgment." Toward the end of the game, when Walnut Grove is in a position to score, it's very obvious that Albert's in serious pain. Ellerbee refuses to take Albert out, telling him to use his pain, and that playing injured is part of the game.
Charles wisely intervenes and takes him out, allowing the town physician, Dr Baker to examine his ribs. "This time there's no doubt about it" says the compassionate doctor, Albert definitely has broken ribs. Charles then tells Ellerbee what the audience has probably been thinking for most of the episode, saying "What kind of a man are you?" Dr Baker tells Albert that not paying attention to pain is foolish and that if pain is not respected, it can lead to serious injury.
Mr Ellerbee is very hard on the team after they lose, saying "No game you lose is a good game." While Charles says they played well and they have "nothing to be ashamed of." Mr Ellerbee has lost sight of reality, and is teaching values that can be inappropriate. When a coach puts winning over the welfare and safety of a player, that's the lowest level of win-at-all costs. Also, there is no shame in losing, provided that players have given their best effort.
This story is an excellent display of the negative effects of obsession with winning and what they can turn a person into. Mr Ellerbee's son obviously hates playing the game, and his wife later tells him that "this obsession of your's with football is getting a little of control." He doesn't love his son unconditionally, and football is the only way his son Dan can win his father's love. Mr Ellerbee refuses to hear any of this. Albert tells Mr Ellerbee that playing is supposed to be fun and that Mr Ellerbee has taken that element out of the game. The sad thing is that he only seems to listen to reason when it comes from his best player, and not the people that he loves, or should love.
The biggest lesson this episode teaches, in my opinion, is that we should never take the fun out of the game, especially when it comes to coaching young boys. The ending of this episode is somewhat tragic, but does provide hope that this obsessive coach has learned something from the situation. This is a perfect example of how not to be a coach. The lessons to be learned are when dedicated efforts to win in sports are appropriate, and indeed when they are not.
