What is BTA? Why high school football teams are whipping opponents

Losing a high school football game can be hard to take without having endure the opposing team literally whipping them after the game.

A new TikTok -driven trend has some high school football players flogging their defeated opponents in a display dubbed BTA — short for beat that ass.

In the handshake line after a game, members of the winning team, using belts or towels — or, sometimes holding imaginary items — give the passing opposing player a lash on the rear end. Some do it playfully, others mockingly and with insults.

Here's how the BTA trend started on social media, and how polarizing the celebration has actually become.

What is the BTA trend?

Published reports indicate the trend started in Texas before spreading to the Bay Area and then through the midwest and the rest of the country.

TikTok has since been flooded with BTA videos, often taken from a participant’s point of view.

Some posters on TikTok have even reposted BTA celebrations with laugh tracks and other mocking audio effects.

One video posted to TikTok purports to show New York's Canisius football team engaging in the postgame BTA celebration.

BTA draws criticism, punishment for participants

Not everyone looks at the BTA trend as a simple post-game celebration , however.

Several players on the Houston-area Willis High School football team were punished or suspended for the BTA celebration after a 77-0 wipeout of Cleveland High School, and, according to one report , teams in the Bay Area football league have taken proactive measures end the BTA celebrations, mainly due to the large fights the celebration can incite.

Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist reporting on trending topics across the Mid-Atlantic Region.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: What is BTA? Why high school football teams are whipping opponents