Think Manatee-Southeast football rivalry was intense? It was nothing compared to Braden River-Venice.

Joe Kinnan and Paul Maechtle helped develop Manatee County's greatest football rivalry during their legendary coaching careers.

But even those two didn't take the Manatee-Southeast rivalry as far as what's happened with Braden River and Venice recently.

"It's gotten a little bit too much," said Maechtle, who won two state titles with Southeast and is now coaching at Cardinal Mooney.

Venice dismissed head football coach John Peacock on Wednesday, a little more than four months after winning a state championship, following the latest controversy surrounding the Indians' program.

Braden River, which forfeited spring practices and its spring game as punishment for holding multiple illegal practices prior to the spring season starting, was at the forefront of the incident that cost Peacock his job.

Last week, a Venice player tweeted a photo of a spray tan bottle at Braden River head coach Curt Bradley, who is multi-racial, and asked Bradley if he uses it. That drew a "like" from Peacock's Twitter account and led to an email from Bradley to Peacock that was copied to Manatee and Sarasota county school officials.

Other incidents involving Venice under Peacock:

▪ The fines and forfeiture of games from the 2009 season stemming from multiple FHSAA rule infractions;

▪ Last spring's recruiting violation of a North Port player involving text messages resulting in the Indians self-reporting to the FHSAA and Peacock receiving a spring suspension;

▪ Having tissues and diapers placed in the visiting coaches office when hosting North Port last fall.

"The kids know what the rules are. I don't understand how people can circumvent the rules and expect your kids to not know that," said Kinnan, who won six state titles with Manatee. "That's always been more important than the wins and losses. You do your best, you don't sweat the rest and the winning takes care of itself.

"That's something I've always believed in. It's still a game, it affects a lot of people, it was a livelihood for me in many ways where I may not have been in education had it not been for football. It's sad to see one of the premier coaches in the state be terminated."

Current Manatee County public high school football coaches can't talk on the matter. There's a gag order on speaking publicly about the issue, stemming from a recent athletic directors meeting.

Venice has defeated Braden River four straight times after the Pirates beat the Indians twice in 2015 en route to the Class 7A state semifinals.

For many years, the Manatee-Southeast rivalry, which captivated the county and even the state, wasn't played out in the same district.

With 10,000 fans packing stadiums to see the game at the height of the rivalry, Maechtle said there was a great deal of passion and he was fortunate that it never got too far because they had mutual admiration for each other.

"We were both kind of rising at the same time," Maechtle said. "Go back to 1985 when we both host a state championship in the town at the same time. That was pretty special. And maybe because for a long time we were not in the same district, we competed against each other annually but we could both walk away and still have our chance at winning a state championship.

"That may have deflected from it getting it to the point, and I'm not saying it would have because we could play and still go our own separate ways and have success. I think that was good for the community. It was good for the schools. It was good for the programs. And when we both started being in the same district, the prize was a little greater because it meant district championships and stuff like that."

Social media today also eliminates the geography distance between programs such as Braden River and Venice.

"Had there been the social media outlets back then, there's no doubt somebody would have done something that was maybe said on a telephone or said in a conversation that was left empty and done and finished that nobody ever heard about," Maechtle said. "A player, maybe a fan. But nobody ever knew about it. In today's day and age, you can accidentally scroll your finger up or down something and hit it, and all of a sudden it's liked and it's bad."

Added Kinnan on his relationship with Maechtle: "Paul and I, I have the upmost respect for him as a professional that I think he had for me. Naturally, we were both very competitive when we played each other and we'd do everything we could legally to try and win. I know I, not only, went by the letter of the law but I went by the spirit of the rules as did Paul. We didn't try gaming the system to gain an advantage.

"If anything had come up, he would call me, or if anything came up from my side that we were concerned about, I would call him. So we sort of had each other's backs for a lack of better approach to it. We'd go to clinics, we'd sit beside each other at the clinics. You'd sit up in the front row, taking notes trying to continue to improve."

This story was originally published April 27, 2018 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Think Manatee-Southeast football rivalry was intense? It was nothing compared to Braden River-Venice.."