Tragedy Speaks About Our Culture

If you have been paying attention lately, you are aware of the soccer referee that recently passed away, apparently as the result of a punch to the head received during a contest.  At first, my reaction was one of shock, horror, and amazement.  REALLY!  He is dead?!  Then, my thoughts turned to silent prayers for this guy's family, and the loss of a father and family guy.

Then, my memory turned to the last few years, and the You Tube video's posted about violence towards officials.  I tried to contemplate my years of growing up playing basketball in high school, and volleyball in college-(I was too short and slow to play basketball in college-so I stayed connected on the hardwood in another sport.)  And, I could not come up with any personal experience around violence committed against a sports official in my presence.  While doing some web research, I did find that over the last 30 years, there are stories about bad things happening to officials as a result of their officiating duties.  And, what I also found is that there are more reports of such events in the last third of those years.

What struck me though, is that the culture around athletics is moving in the same direction as the culture generally.  It appears to me, (in my opinion), that more and more I see some sort of verbal insult, obnoxious behavior-throwing ice, drinks, food, etc.-or out right physical violence in or around an athletic contest.  Recently, I was talking to my partner referees at the end of a game behind a scorers table.  We looked up when a crowd of parents/people estimated to be around 75 people gathered at the end of the court.  And, within seconds, a fight had broken out.  It was somewhat severe, as the next contest was delayed 30 minutes as blood had to be scrubbed from the playing surface.

I am not generally a doomsayer, nor do I try to judge behavior of other people- there is plenty of both of those and people who do are probably much "better" at it than me. And I find it simply just not worth my time to think about what I think about what someone else does.

But, I do find myself now, thinking about safety much more than I used to.  It is a small "world" we operate in.  Most places any of us go these days, we have been there before, and people can figure out who we are and what we do.  I mean when you park and get out of the car and go to your trunk and pull out the right bag for the location-it is obvious to many what you are arriving to do.

Some time ago, I read an article about a notable referee retiring.  I found it amusing at the time when in the body of one of the articles he was quoted as saying he always made sure he parked the car with the nose facing out.  Not funny, anymore.

Now, no matter where I go, even in small summer venues, my thoughts are different when I pull into the parking lot.  I mean its not just trying to avoid "door dings" anymore!

The real concern for me is, "Where does it go?"  How far will it go?  When will we read/hear about the official that is shot while working or after a game?  I don't know.  I hope never.

And, I am not sure what really can be done.  I mean I recently saw law enforcement officers in uniform, attending and supervising a summer game sight.  When I asked if he had a player there, or a relative, he said no-he was just doing his job!  WOW!

I do wonder if in the future, in the front of our rule books under the "Officials Duties" section, if we indeed will see advice/mechanics about "workplace" violence!