This is not a slight on Dallas, or Oklahoma State, or even Wyoming — it’s just that guns and football don’t mix. Sorry to all the fans of Cowboys (or even Buccaneers, Raiders, Rebels or Minutemen).

I’m not talking about that one scene from “The Last Boy Scout.” I’m talking about drive by shootings outside of prep football games, and disgruntled losers of video games. 

Last week marked the second week of prep football in Wisconsin, and the first week for many other states — including Florida and Illinois. A shooting outside of a high school game in Jacksonville left one dead and two injured while another shooting in Rockford halted the final 10 minutes of Freeport’s win over Auburn. 

That’s hitting it close to home.

Whether it’s gang-related violence or a domestic disturbance or a robbery gone bad or a premeditated act — these events are happening with striking consistency in recent years. I’m not asking criminals to steer clear of prep event sights (well, actually, yes, I am. If you are a criminal with a weapon looking to do harm, stay away from all events involving schools, kids and families. Even better, just stay in your bedroom and listen to Enya on loop), I’m just getting worried that these types of events — ones that typically bring communities together for friendly competition — will lose their luster based off of fear of violence.

Also, in Jacksonville (obligatory Bugs Bunny sawing Florida off into the sea .gif), a Baltimore video gamer unleashed hell after losing in a Madden football tournament. The 24-year-old walked out to his car, grabbed a gun, returned to the tournament setup and opened fire, killing two and leaving several more injured before turning the gun on himself.

As someone who attends similar tournaments, this froze my bones as soon as I heard it: “Mass casualties at esports tournament.” While I go to events for retro gaming, I understand why Madden Tournaments are a big deal — it’s current, the graphics are spectacular, there are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions playing online, and EA Sports (the game’s creator) dishes out cash prizes. 

Madden is fun, don’t get me wrong, but I hate playing other people in it — mostly because of other people. There are so many people online that will whine, cry, scream, throw tantrums and unplug their game if they lose. I mean, I get it, but I don’t. My other gripe with Madden is that no one else seems to want to play the full 15-minute quarters on the top difficulty level. They settle for the 3- to 5-minute quarters. Please — if I am going to play a game where the graphics look real, I want it to be as real as possible — full play clock, full game clock, instant replay; basically, a three-hour affair.

But I don’t have enough time to play that long for one game at home, let alone at a tournament. And it just doesn’t feel right shrinking the time of a game.

In Tecmo Super Bowl, however? That’s 8-bits of magic and 14 minutes start to finish. The game has random glitches and nuances, is nearly 30 years old and the last guy to be featured in the game retired almost a decade ago.

Also, going across the country and playing in Tecmo Super Bowl Tournaments, I’ve never felt worried about my safety. Granted, the Jacksonville shooter could be the outlier, but I’ve come to personally know over 100 of Tecmo’s greatest players. It’s a fantastic group that doesn’t get vexed for losing (OK, one guy ripped his controller out and walked away after one loss in double-elimination, but it was more humorous than anything). You win some, you lose some. Some losses sting because you messed up, some losses sting because the game glitched that favored your opponent, and other losses sting because you played the game of your life but you still lost to one of the Top 5-10 in the world. It happens. We get over it. We don’t whip out a 9-mm and seek revenge.

It’s called sportsmanship. It’s also called being a decent human being.

Jacksonville and Rockford, whether it’s sportsmanship or being a decent human being, please figure it out. Lives are on the line now.

— Adam Krebs is a reporter for the Times and still thinks Madden ’05 is the best of the series. He can be reached at akrebs@themonroetimes.net.