I bet some of you reading this at home think I make some of this stuff up, but I don't. If I am posting well after an event, I may not remember all the details exactly, so that is why I am writing this one while it is really fresh in my mind.
My son plays club soccer and high school soccer as well as being a referee sometimes. Tonight he had a game and I was in attendance. As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of high school because of the different rules, the whole extension of the classroom concept and a few other things.
This evening, I recognized the center and the AR on our side. Most schools have one side for the home team parents and one side for the away team parents. That is the case at my son's school. During the second half, while my son's team is up by 6 or so, I start to hear from behind me the following comments, increasing in volume and intensity as the game winds down.
"AR, you are not even with the second to last defender."
"AR you can't keep up play."
"AR you suck."
"AR, that was a foul, raise your f***ing flag."
I knew the AR well enough to recognize that he did one of my 7 to 6 assessments, so I KNEW he was a good AR and that he was keeping up with play as best as he could and that over all, he was doing what he should be doing, not letting his guard down just because the game was 6-0 (in fact, some will say that this is the time you have to be at your most attentive, because something might blow up just as you start to get complacent).
So I turn around to the yelling parent and ask him, "Do you know Pat?" He was giving him such a hard time that I figured he must know him and was giving him a hard time because they were friends and there was some friendly ribbing going on. What he said next told me quite the contrary.
"No, I don't know who he is, but he is laughing with the coaches and he is not paying attention and he is just home cooking."
At that point I disengaged, we were in an area where there weren't many other parents and I just started looking at my phone. About 2-3 minutes later, the angry parent starts up again.
"AR, you can't call that."
"Where did you learn to hold up an offside flag?"
"The ball went out back there AR, have some f***ing balls and make them throw it in back there."
I turned around and said to the guy that it was enough, that I knew that AR and that the crew deserved more respect. He tells me to go into his face and make him stop and gets up and starts walking towards me. At that point, I figure there is nothing to gain and I try to disengage again but not before he gets close and I smell quite a bit of alcohol on him, so I say to him "Oh you're just flat out drunk, that explains everything." and walk away. A couple of parents come over to see what is going on and I watch the rest of the game from farther down the stands.
At the end of the game (7-1 was the final), the parent comes back towards me and tells me again to make him shut up, to which I laugh and walk away. I really couldn't believe that this parent would do such a thing when there was nothing to really get all riled up about. The game was a blowout, and pinning things on the AR was really not something that made much sense.
So Pat, if you are reading this and heard the guy in the second half, just know it was me that stood up for you. You did a great job tonight! All I hope is that this guy did not drive home with his kid. Hopefully his kid had a driver's license and could drive his old man home since he was probably over the limit.
No comments:
Post a Comment