Belichick was fined $50,000 by the NFL. This might seem like a lot of money to us, but it .0066% of Belicheck's $7.5 million annual salary. But this is not even the real issue.
And the issue is not that these are "replacement refs."
The point is this - does a football game matter THAT much that you need to grab a referee? What IS the place of sports (youth leagues to professional) in our mixed up culture!
Last summer I was umpiring a baseball game in the "Global World Series" in Colorado (by the way, it was NOT a global tournament and was NOT a WORLD series). It WAS a very competitive tournament with teams from all over the Midwest and Mountain states.
There was an ALL-GIRLS team in an all-boys tournament. And the girls were very,very good. I umpired a game in which the girls came back from a 7-0 deficit and won 8-7. In the last inning when they went from losing 7-6 to winning 8-7 I called one of the boys out on a called-strike-three.
The head coach rushed at me from his position as third base coach. The coach proceeded to bump in the chest. I ejected the coach, which also means he cannot coach the following game either.
The next game was played by this same boys' team and a different opponent. The head coach was on the bench coaching his team! I called the umpire director and asked why he was on the field. The director told me that the tournament director made this decision. Why? Because the team paid a lot of money to be there and the coach would pull his players off the field and would demand their money back.
Believe me, I am NOT comparing myself with the NFL and professional sports. But there IS something in me that screams, STOP IT, when it comes to the competitiveness in sports. Not just in America either, by the way.
Can we not direct our passion and energy to other more worthwhile causes or interests can the competition on a football field or baseball diamond? Are there not other more worthy causes than who wins my kid's baseball game?
No comments:
Post a Comment