Academic Athlete: Albert plays football for the second time in the series.
Artistic License – History: Although games involving participants running with a ball date to ancient history, the first documented college football game – one that resembles the current game – in the United States was played in 1875, just a few years before the year (1881) in which this episode was set. Coach Pete Ellerbee, said to be a big college football star in his younger days, is at least in his mid-40s, meaning that, presuming he was in his late teens or early 20s when he would have played, he would have played a game that didn't exist before the Civil War.
Blood Sport: What Coach Ellerbee considers football to be. Today, he'd be known as an old-school "smash-mouth" coach.
Early-Installment Weirdness and Technology Marches On: Despite the artistic liberties taken in this story, viewers do get the opportunity to see how American football was played in its formative stages – more players on the field, fewer restrictions on tackling and more risk for injury, no helmets, different scoring system, different rules … on the list goes.
Heel Realization: After Albert quits football, saying it wasn't fun anymore upon being seriously injured, Coach Ellerbee finally sees the harm he's been doing to his students and his family, and cancels the training that day to go home and talk to his son.
Mama Bear: Ellerbee's wife puts up with his pressuring their son to the limit with football, but after he's injured and clearly miserable about not living up to his father's expectations, she starts standing up to her husband and calling him out on his treatment of their kid.
Sports Dad: Pete Ellerbee to his son, whom he pressures to follow his footsteps in football, in an attempt to revive his glory days as a football star through him.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Although Laura's narration informs the Walnut Grove team still had more games of which they lost most of them but had fun with, Coach Ellerbee is never seen again after this episode.
Technology Marches On: Despite the artistic liberties taken in this story, viewers do get the opportunity to see how American football was played in its formative stages – more players on the field, fewer restrictions on tackling and more risk for injury, no helmets, different scoring system, different rules … on the list goes.