Flag Football

You spent three hours last Sunday screaming at the TV, watching penalty flags flutter to the turf like dead canaries and cripple the Ravens in that ugly 23-20 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you don't want to go through that again this weekend when they face the Oakland Raiders with a playoff berth on the line, because you'll end up pulling your hair out. Well, guess what? The Ravens don't want to go through it again, either.

Bull Dog Flag Football is registering for the fall season, which runs Sept. 18 to Dec. 18 and includes post-season and tournament games. Games are played in Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel counties and the Glen Burnie area on Sundays (tournament games on Saturdays). Registration fee for 9-man and 8-man IE is $500, plus officials fees; registration for 5-man is $350, plus official fees. To register, go to eteamz.com/mdbulldogflagfootball. For more information, contact David Mitchell, BDFFL commissioner, 4BullDogFlagFootball@msn.com or 410-409-4866.

Even after their unsightly 27-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, the Ravens still have a shot at the playoffs because they don't face a team with a winning record the rest of the way. The Ravens' biggest opponent over the final four weeks of the regular season might be themselves - or the officials, depending on your perspective. Penalties have dogged the Ravens throughout the season and have cost them a chance to keep pace in the AFC wild-card race. The Ravens' 12 penalties at Lambeau Field were the most in the 31-game John Harbaugh era. Their five pass-interference penalties (four of which were on the defense)

Shame on the Catonsville Times for essentially running a story for the i9 flag football league ("New flag football league puts the fun in fundamentals," Sept. 21). Make no mistake, i9 is a for-profit business. The Times was misguided to devote a full page advertisement to this organization. Catonsville already has dozens of sports programs, offered to the children of the community under the Baltimore County Parks and Recreation umbrella. These are run 100 percent by volunteers, who are completely focused on the children - not turning a profit.

After his football team opened the 2011 season with a 40-17 win over Delaware last Saturday in Annapolis, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo was beaming. Niumatalolo could not have been more proud of a quarterback, senior Kriss Proctor, who rushed for 176 yards and accounted for four touchdowns in taking over after the graduation of Ricky Dobbs.The fourth-year coach also praised his defense, with nine new starters, for making a team that reached the championship...

For years, they've gathered every weekend on a grassy field in Dundalk to play tackle football. A gang of spirited, blue-collar twentysomethings, they shake hands, choose sides and, for three hours, wale the tar out of each other. So, when they heard about the first Baltimore Flag Football Festival on Saturday — an all-day, round-robin tournament at Pimlico Race Course promising $1,200 to the winner — the crew from Dundalk signed on. After all, how hard could the flag game be, once you're used to playing tackle?

The Savage Boys and Girls Club is holding registration for flag football and fall soccer. To register, or for more information, go to http://www.savagebgc.org.

Now that it's cracked down on the "Sins of the Saints" (March 22), petty soon the No Fun League will be a flag football or two hand touch league. T. McDonough, Towson

Brady Anderson is carving a small block of time out of his packed training schedule to demonstrate the true purpose of the athletic life, which is not about money or women or fame or even fun. It's about beating you. The field of play - in this case - is a pingpong table in the middle of the Orioles' spring clubhouse at the Ed Smith Stadium Complex, where the team is preparing - with Anderson's help - for the 2012 baseball season. But it could just as well be a tennis court or a flag football field or the running track.

All but a handful of state high school sports teams -- those involved in state football playoffs or traditional Thanksgiving Day games -- have put away the fall gear, and the start of the winter season is two weeks away.Likewise, Western Maryland college athletes have an extended holiday break, with no winter sports events scheduled until a week from today.But a few dozen county athletes still will lace up the spikes this weekend, barely giving Thursday's holiday mealtime excess time to digest.