Recently, a friend told me about an athletic event €“ it really doesn’t matter what sport it was or where it was €“ in which an official made a call that didn’t sit well with some spectators.
The home team players were losing when they should have been winning, given their ability, and some parents in the crowd were getting upset. After that call they started berating the official, even as their kids continued to try to play.
The official started whistling everything possible on the home team. They lost.
Whether or not those parents’ behavior helped their team lose the game isn’t really my point. The issue is sportsmanship.
I’ve covered sports off and on for nearly 30 years as a newspaper reporter. I’ve seen some really ugly scenes, and too many of them were in the crowd. People screaming at the refs. People screaming at coaches. People screaming at their kids. People screaming at each other.
I’ve seen it everywhere I’ve worked, even here in Sweet Home.
Trash talking has become an art for some in recent years. A lot of people who do it take great pleasure in it. They spend hours on the Web shooting smart-alecky barbs back and forth.
It’s one of the reasons University of Oregon star running back LaGarrette Blount is experiencing a season-long suspension from the team, after he sucker-punched a (reportedly trash-talking) Boise State player and went after some (reportedly trash-talking) BSU fans.
Blount definitely got all of what he had coming for that unacceptable behavior.
But is trash talk really a sign of strength, as many of its practitioners seem to think?
Calling out somebody’s manhood or womanhood, or questioning their birth circumstances, or pointing out other deficiencies in derogatory terms seems to me a poor substitute for beating someone fair and square.
I’m a father and I’ve been a coach and I’ve always told my kids and my players that when someone starts shooting off their mouth to just beat them on the next play. If they’re getting under your skin, the best way to shut them up is to play hard and clean. It’s an honorable way to respond to dishonorable behavior on the field, I tell them.
But what about the officials? I know they can turn a game. I’ve had it happen to me. What I can’t understand is why anybody would think verbal abuse is going to improve their performance.
If you’re a ref calling hoops or soccer, or a football game; if you’re an umpire at home plate, what do you do when the yokels start bellowing at you?
You’re supposedly the person in authority and they’re questioning yours.
Since you can’t fight back physically €“ unless you can order them to leave, you feel the need to retaliate, you’re going to do it in a way that hurts them. You’re going to make them feel some pain of their own in the calls you make.
That’s one good reason why it’s not a good idea to pick on the ref.
The other is that it’s just poor sportsmanship €“ period.
So the ref is wrong. It may cost you, but in the end it usually is just a game.
I’ve coached many games in which refs made really stupid calls. In a couple, they drove me crazy. But in only one did things get dangerous because of what the official was allowing the other team to get away with. We had a very intense conversation at midfield in that game €“ and one coach (not me) got booted. We lost, by the way. But that’s all it was €“ an L.
Generally, officials are not creating danger with their whistles (or lack thereof). Generally, bad calls just mean you have to play harder or better to win.
Is the fact that the ref is wrong reason to act like an undisciplined 4-year-old in a grocery store who’s just been told “no?”
I’m not completely innocent myself. I love competition and I don’t appreciate lack of effort €“ from players or from the officials.
I’ve done my share of of yelling at games, hopefully most of it positive. I’ve let a few comments go over the years when some official cost us a score because he or she apparently didn’t understand the rules.
Bottom line is, though, criticism is of limited value.
Think about it. You’re an official, running up and down a court or a field, or standing behind the plate for an hour and a half with the crowd behind you questioning your brain functions. Think you could make good calls under those circumstances?
Would you want to?
As far as sportsmanship goes, a classy crowd that doesn’t erupt every time the officials trip up leaves a better impression of their community than a nasty one does. I’ve been to many, many stadiums and gyms over the years and I remember some with respect and others with loathing. And it wasn’t the cleanliness of the bathrooms.
Respect not only makes the game more pleasant for just about everybody, but it also sends a message to the kids: When things don’t go perfectly in life, don’t have a cow.
I know as a coach that kids are often embarrassed when their “fans” are acting up. Some people might take pride in their prowess at calling out the officials or the other team, but it gives your whole community a black eye.
Yes, refs sometimes are terrible. Yes, it bothers me, but even a bad ref can often be overcome by good play.
To anybody who thinks they can do better, let me suggest that they be one. Every so often we run a little blurb in this paper about how the Oregon School Activities Association needs officials for some sport. The Sweet Home boys junior varsity
soccer team played into the night last week because they only had enough refs available for one game at a time. The varsity got the refs first, then the junior varsity. There’s obviously a shortage out there, at least in soccer.
Don’t like the refs you’re seeing out there? Put yourself in their shoes.