Written by Last week, Owen Woodward of the Weatherford College baseball team decided to run at full speed and tackle a base runner after his home run hit. While baseball is not known for hits, fights, punches, or other close quarters fighting, there is occasionally a flareup. Woodward was provoked by choice four letter words from the base runner, but did those words justify a physical altercation? Woodward, the base runner, and all players and coaches who stormed the field received level of suspensions and both teams were forced to forfeit several games. Despite this incident, Woodward’s tackle is just one of many fights and bad behavior that are appearing in sports.
Why is there more fighting and is fighting, taunting, and other malicious and unsportsmanlike behavior than in the past? Is it because of the internet and the ability for anyone to post videos of almost anything instantaneously for millions of people to view? Or is culture in sports at a breaking point?
I believe that positive culture in sports is at a breaking point. In addition to the Weatherford College baseball tackle, there have been many more incidents in the last few months. One was where a mother of a youth basketball player was telling her daughter to take down an opposing player. The girl complied to what her mother was telling her to do, and she sucker punched the much smaller opposing player.
But it does not stop at athletes or parents, in February, Juwan Howard, the head coach of the University of Michigan basketball program slapped an assistant coach from the opposing team on the head after the game during the handshake line, because the other team called a timeout late in the game. Was the timeout enough to cause a coach to assault another? In the case of Juwan Howard, he has a history of attacking others on the court.
Then there was the case in January where two radio commentators were fat shaming girls in a high school junior varsity game. While this was not a physical attack, it was one of words and could have unknown impact on the listeners and even the players. The radio station serviced a very small town and surrounding community in Maine, which means that the girls that were fat shamed probably heard it directly on the radio or through friends, family, and those in the community about it.
And finally, there was the story in January of the referees walking out of a game before the game even before it started. In Texas, the officials claimed that they felt unsafe officiating the high school varsity boys’ basketball game after the fans became unruly during the previous girls’ basketball game. The schools and fans stated that the officials left because they were upset that they did not get free food from the concessions stand. But in either case, there was still incredibly bad behavior from one of the groups.
Like I stated previously, we may be at a culture breaking point in sports. Coaches, administrators, general managers, team owners, officials, and boards of directors need to step up and lead be example and get all sports at all levels back to focusing on competition and sportsmanship. While I only provided a few examples, there are dozens of examples just in the last month alone that made the news. Imagine other bad behavior that is not reported in the news or on social media! We have to be better examples, better leaders, and show athletes, fans, parents, opposing teams, and even officials what is good behavior, what a positive culture is, and that toxic culture and bad behavior are unacceptable. We need to be better!
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/mac-engel/article260662067.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/24/maine-radio-fired-bodyshaming-girl-athletes/
https://kkam.com/whats-the-scoop-on-local-basketball-officials-not-getting-frito-pie/