I encourage everyone to take a few moments to read Grant Wahl’s excellent article on SI.com entitled: Over the Top. He writes about the extreme and vulgar behavior being displayed by college basketball fans this season, including death threats to athletes as well as homophobic sideline taunting. His words will leave you feeling angered, disgusted and hopefully….embarrassed. Embarrassed, that as a society, we even have to ask ourselves if we’ve gotten so tainted that we simply shrug off this outrageous behavior as “part of the game”?
Whose responsibility is it?
Similar to the crisis of global warming, the responsibility for poor fan behavior and sportsmanship lies at each of our doorsteps. Stemming the tide requires not only an adoption of a “zero tolerance” attitude by the organizations that sponsor and support sporting events, but more importantly by each and every one of us individual sports fans.
Below are some recent news articles about the excellent efforts being put forth by several universities in encouraging good sportsmanship amongst their students.
UCLA Asks Own Fans to Refrain from Taunting Oregon Athletes and Families
IU Issues Plea for Good Sportsmanship
Fans Encouraged to Clean It Up- MSU taking steps to curb crude behavior at athletic events
Finally, a story under the category of “what planet are we on?” entitled: Kansas HS Refuses Female Official. It tells of some brave individuals who stood up against a Kansas religious high school that refused to allow a female referee to officiate a boy’s basketball game due to their beliefs that a woman could not be put in a position of authority over boys.
We invite you to share your stories, thoughts, and comments about what’s being done to help improve the level of sportsmanship in your school or community.
That’s all for now. Remember- the sounds of chirping birds and cheering fans are just around the corner! Think spring!
