Amid a challenging season for the Baldwin High School football team, the athletic director reached out to the athletic directors for its upcoming opponents, asking them to potentially take it easier on their team to help them deal with player-safety concerns.

KDKA's Jessica Guay spoke with Baldwin's football coach, Dana Brown, who said he believes the email that athletic director Tony Cherico sent out to other ADs was meant to start a conversation to discuss potential safety plans in case they need to resort to them. Options in the email included playing under a running clock or other teams using junior varsity players more.

"It was kind of presented like here goes option a, here goes option b, this is option c, " Brown said. "No, we don't want to do this. No one really wants to do it. But if we had to do it, what would your option be?" Brown said.

Brown said this stems from safety concerns from some parents who have either held their kids out or threatened to hold their kids out because they want a safety plan in place.

"We have a roster size of 30," Brown said. "But all actuality, we might be down to 24 to 26 kids. So, the same kids are playing offense, defense, special teams. So, just like last week, we competed up until like the second quarter, where you look back and see kids drained," Brown said.

The team has won one game over the past three seasons. While they don't have a lot of players, their quarterback has also just transferred.

Coach Brown said he wants his players to play the full game every Friday night. He hopes the players don't listen to all the noise and that they'll be fueled to be better football players and human beings. 

The game this Friday against South Fayette will be played normally. 

Baldwin-Whitehall School District Superintendent Randal A. Lutz released a statement that said, in part, that Cherico's email was "in response to expressed concerns for their safety" and not a "reflection of our pride, respect and support of each one of our athletes."