It’s that time of year again. The Yankees have been knocked out of the playoffs, Mets fans are just about ready to stop crying over that little hiccup that ended their season and all around Binghamton University students are playing Co-Rec football. But Co-Rec football isn’t as much fun as it sounds. Just ask the Jets players about the joy they receive from running deep routes only to have Chad Pennington reach back and fire a five-yard interception.

The Jets, for some ungodly reason, actually want Pennington to start for them, but students who assemble to play Co-Rec don’t have that luxury. They are forced to play a girl at the quarterback position no matter how bad she might be. Now before all the feminists who happen to be reading this article call for my head, let me clarify. I am not saying that girls can’t be quarterbacks or that certain girls aren’t better suited for the position than their male counterparts, but simply that a rule mandating that the role of quarterback be awarded to a girl is ridiculous and unfair.

I’ve spoken to those in charge of Co-Rec and they maintain that a girl must fill the position because otherwise she would ‘never get the ball.’ I’ve played enough pickup football games to know that the only thing that counts is the ability to catch the ball. If a guy can’t catch, he’ll get exactly the same amount of balls as a girl who can’t catch: zero. Since there might never be a rule stating that every player on a team deserves X number of touches in a game in the name of ‘fairness,’ how is it sensible to have a rule that forces a girl into the most demanding position on the field?

Guys have to walk around their building begging girlfriends to come out and play so they don’t have to forfeit because, under Co-Rec rules, if a team of six guys assembles to play but can’t find a girl to quarterback, it is considered an automatic loss. Not even affirmative action takes things that far.

What would happen if a college said to its incoming class, ‘Sorry, there aren’t enough minorities here, please go find some to be a part of the group or none of you can come to our university’?

I get the spirit of the rule. It’s Co-Rec, not the NFL, and organizers of events don’t want to see girls who want to play standing on the sidelines because the guys on the field are too macho to let them in the game. So, create a rotation such that everyone on the team, regardless of their sex, spends an even amount of time on the field. But forcing a girl into any position isn’t fairness. The name of the game is equality, not special treatment.

The QB position is the most difficult and should be played by the most talented individual, regardless of that person’s sex. And if a girl with a cannon for an arm shows up and says, ‘I want to play,’ no one would say, ‘Nah, forget touchdowns ‘ I’d rather lose but have a guy quarterback.’ No one except the Jets wants a Chad Pennington on their team.