On Friday evening, the Red Carpet Bowl football games celebrated 50 years since the first playing. For the first game Friday, the temperature hovered in the mid-90s with stifling humidity.

Football players are tough young men, but strapping on pounds of equipment to take the field not three full weeks into August should have coaches and parents wondering why. And let’s not forget the referees trying to keep up with the younger, faster players. The heat must be brutal on them, as well.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association this year allowed teams to play their first game on Aug. 20. The sanctioning body for all public school athletic teams in Mississippi then allowed schools to schedule an off week later in the season. In addition, all games before October must include a stoppage of play for water midway through each quarter.

Vicksburg High chose to take its off week this coming Friday, but Warren Central and St. Aloysius will not have off days until Sept. 17 — certainly a cooler evening than Friday. Porters Chapel Academy does not have an off week.

High school-age players today are tough, but today’s high school football resembles little of yesteryear. Stories of brutal practices, having to roll uphill and having water breaks that consisted of squeezing the sweat from a towel are over. Those players spent all day every day outside, acclimating themselves to the elements over the months.

Today’s youngsters, by and large, live in a processed air world. Starting games three weeks into August — the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools also started its football season on Aug. 20 — is pushing the envelope.

High school football is as much a part of the fabric of Mississippi as family and religion, and it should remain that way.

Common sense, though, and safety should dictate a later start to the high school football season.