There was one point in one of the NFL games, in which the receiver stopped
running after he stepped out of bounds, even though the referree had not
whistled the ball dead yet. The commentators said they figured the runner
just assumed the ref saw it, and they said something to the effect that
he should just keep on running because you never know what the refs might
miss.
If there's one morality pro sports teaches, it seems to be that "it's
only wrong if you get caught." I don't watch college sports, so I don't
know if it is similar at that level.
I'm not a radical wanting pro sports banned or anything. I am a big NFL and
NBA fan. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this anti-social
bent in the attitudes of some of the commentators and probably the fans
and players as well. The concept of penalties as punishment for doing
something against the spirit of the game has been lost. Especially in
basketball, penalties are used as just another strategy tool.
If you want your children, boys and girls, to learn about t
While the commentators may say that, there is another, more important
reason to keep running. If the defenders don't hear the whistle, they are
likely to take a good shot at you. If you aren't prepared for it, you could
be injured. Many injuries occur this way.
As far as the morality goes, I think what it really is is, "the referee is
always right, even when he's wrong". That means stepping on the white line
doesn't make you out of bounds, the referee *declaring* that you stepped
on the white line (and blowing the whistle) makes you out of bounds. Throwing
the pitch over the plate does not constitute a strike until the umpire
raises his right hand. Etc.
--Greg
Fortunately, the members of the NCAA are trying to clean up there act. There
are programs out there proving that you can be dedicated to academics
and win big-time-college-football without resorting to bad recruiting
practices or other violations..... It take longer for the program to get
on its feet, but the base is more solid for a winning program...
>I'm not a radical wanting pro sports banned or anything. I am a big NFL and
>NBA fan. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this anti-social
>bent in the attitudes of some of the commentators and probably the fans
>and players as well. The concept of penalties as punishment for doing
>something against the spirit of the game has been lost. Especially in
>basketball, penalties are used as just another strategy tool.
>
People are bloodthirsty to begin with, and this is an extension of sports
(competition) drawing the 'in-humane' from within us. What I mean to say
is that there is no spirit of good competition as far as many fans
are concerned, just whether or not 'their' team won the friggin' game...
This filters out of fandom to the commentators (as they are there to provide
what the viewer wants (ratings and all..)), and back to the newer/impressionable
fans in a vicious cycle...
kenn
--
Standard Disclaimer in force..... (I think????)
Kenneth E. Walker
Office of Computing Services
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!ccastkw
or !gatech!gtfelix!gt-opus!kenn
We all know of people who'll do anything to win, no matter what the cost
may be in terms of money or lives or anything for that matter. These
sentiments exist in neighborhood leagues to high-school to college to
the pros to plain everyday business. It is not something that particular
to sports, but to the overall desire to win, and to make the other person
lose. Much of the practices that are described above have been removed
in many aspects of football. Litigation in the late 70's and early 80's
have established that the coaches that teach these techniques are responsible
for any and all injuries that occur due to them. In fact, it becomes
a matter of negligence if the coach doesn't point out that these techniques
can injure a player, and that it is possible to be killed or paralyzed
for life playing football. Hopefully there are more people in coaching
today there because of the benefits they get from seeing young people
mature and grow.... I know that my high school was like that (our head
coach was a math teacher, and he was there because he WANTED to be a teacher,
the football was just another way to teach about life) and my team has
had nothing but winning seasons the past 15 years, 2 state champions,
and the head coach has 260+ career wins... Here at Georgia Tech, the football
is a bigger business, but the coaches are just as concerned with the
welfare of their players... (if you've ever heard of Homer Rice's "Total
Person Program" concept... that's what's going on here)....
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, hopefully the imnprovements
will make up for it in the future..
I was a lousy athlete up to high school -- NON-athlete is a more
accurate representation. When I transferred to a small, private
school for high school, there was a much stronger push for EVERYONE to
get involved with athletics because when your school is THAT small,
you NEED warm bodies just to fill up a team. Surprisingly, though,
our school fielded some damn good teams. Since the headmaster had 5
or 6 daughters who were all outstanding athletees, there was a strong
girls' sports program.
Any other coach would have discouraged me, but Floss Brudon, the main
girls' gym teacher and coach, encouraged anyone who wanted to to go
out for sports. There was a policy against cutting anyone from any
team just because they weren't a great athlete. Another policy
throughout the school's sports program was that "How Well You Played
The Game" was emphasized over winning. If we played our best but were
still defeated, we were praised for playing our best. If we won
mostly because we were sloppy but the other team was sloppier, we were
criticized for playing a sloppy game. Another policy was that
everyone who showed up to play got to play -- even if it was only for
five minutes because the game was tight.
Because of the encouragement I received in the area of sports, I made
visible improvements in my physical fitness. For example, when I
entered the school, my time on the 50-yard dash was 13 seconds; by my
junior year, it was down to 9 seconds. While this was slow compared
to most of my teammates (who timed in from 6-8 seconds), I noticed the
improvement, as did everyone around me.
--Lynn
P.S.--Wrt quality, our girls' lacrosse team was #2 in NJ my senior year!
--
UUCP: ...lll-crg!figmo
ARPA: Lynn%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM
***********************************************************************
* Any resemblance between my postings and any person, living or dead, *
* is purely coincidental. Besides, I'm only a guest user here... *
***********************************************************************
Like they say, driving is just like football. You can step on the pedal
until the officer blows the whistle. Anyways, how 'bout them Rams!
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR SOUR GRAPES ***
Yeah! How about a team that can only score 16 points each game and
still get lucky enough to win?
Whatever those guys are doing (Holding group prayer meetings at halftime,
performing human sacrifices during warm-ups, or sleeping with sheep) seems
to be working. They managed to get the clock to run out before St. Louis
could move that last yard, and then this week the voodoo curse worked on
Joe Montana's back.
They shouldn't need any luck for their next three games (although having a
quarterback would be useful). The three following should be fairly routine
unless the Falcons are for real. But you can FORGET about week 9. After
they become lamb chops for the Bears the rest of their schedule will become
considerably difficult, and they should end up at 10 and 6 for the season.
These guys will peeter out during the second half of the season, just like
last year.
Condolences to the L.A. area,
Zippy
P.S. While we're on the subject of L.A. --- how 'bout them Raiders!