Two kids ran out on a football field in the middle of the game. A coach tackled the kid in front. The kid’s parents want to see the coach fired.
Regardless of the level of the competition, (pro, college or high school), it’s forbidden to run out in the middle of the game. Invariably someone (usually a security guy or a cop) tackles the offender. In fact, in the moment of the incident it’s really the only way to stop the offender. And usually the offender faces some sort of penalty – sometimes even criminal.
But here, the parents want the coach fired. In a small way it’s the same as when a cop uses force to subdue a criminal. “I don’t care if my kid was wrong. You are wrong-er for stopping him.”
It’s time to stop coddling miscreants and their misbehavior.
Fan-on-the-field rarely (if ever) endangers anyone. That doesn’t mean people should just stand back.
For the record, in many of these incidents it’s a player or a coach on the field that tackles the offender.
To my point in the OP, we’re hamstringing society from addressing misbehavior. I don’t know how old you are, Oryx, but in the days of my youth any neighborhood adult could (and would) address my misbehavior, and my parents would welcome their help if such an occurrence was necessary. And Mr. Jones would subsequently let my parents know what he had to do, and my parents would get on my case for making Mr. Jones have to do it. Today (like the parents of this kid in the link) the parents would be filing charges against Mr. Jones.
The parents in the article should be ashamed that their kid’s misbehavior is being splashed on the internet. But evidently not.
Looked to me like he and a friend were (at a calculated time) running across an (at that moment) empty field with no intention of circling back through. I can’t see myself getting that fuming angry over something so minor like the coach did, but that’s just me. The crowd didn’t seem to mind either. He didn’t appear to be interrupting gameplay (admittedly, I don’t like football, nor do I watch anything other than the Super Bowl, and even that’s 50/50, so I don’t know much about modern rules or gameplay).
If there is professional security, they should adhere to their SOP - strictly - since they are dealing with minors, where different laws apply to them in different ways than legal adults.
That boy’s mother may be in a position to successfully sue the school and the coach because he - the grown man - lost his temper and assaulted a minor.
Again, I don’t attend events like these, so I’m naive enough to think an announcement would have been over the loud speakers reminding folks to stay off the field. The kids were easily identified and could have been reprimanded by the principal during school hours.
If you’re not official security for the event, then yes, you should absolutely stand back.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re talking about here. If by “address my misbehavior” you’re talking about yelling at a kid or giving him a lecture and then reporting his misdeeds to his parents, I’m all for it. If you’re talking about laying your hands on my kid, as this coach did to this high school student, then we have a major problem.
The problem with society is that adults can’t rough up other people’s kids anymore? Please. Corporal punishment is a decision parents can make regarding their own kids, but no one else’s.
Maybe you could just spit it out plainly, then, instead of posting a few words at a time and leaving it to me to interpret. When I say adults shouldn’t lay their hands on other people’s kids, and you say, “You make my point,” what are you saying exactly? What point?
In the context of this incident, the coach laying hands on the kid was (or should be) warranted.
You extrapolated that specific incident to this:
And THAT is what I did NOT say.
See, that’s how it goes around here.
Someone says one thing, and people who want to argue expand it into strawmen that were NOT part of the original point.
Others may fall for that. I do not.
There ARE times (or should be) when someone is justified to “lay hands on” someone else. What we’re doing in this litigious culture is hamstringing appropriate responses to offenses, and shifting prosecution from the reprobate to the one who acts to stop it.
I dont agree with any form of physical punishment for children. I did not slap or hit my kids and they turned out just fine. So no one else was ever going to lay a hand on my children.
One time I lost control and slapped the legs of my daughter. I felt disgusted by what I did and seeing the red mark on her legs stays with me to this day.
I’m just trying to figure out what you’re saying, I’m not intentionally misinterpreting you. When you post vague statements such as “You make my point,” you leave it up to me to interpret your point.
I agree. When personal property or safety are endangered, it’s justifiable to react with force. In this case, though, there was no danger to person or property, and the coach overreacted. I wouldn’t throw him in jail for it, but his actions were wrong.
However, it’s not tennis or ping pong. It’s a rough game by its very nature.
And, were that my son, I’d be asking what the heck was he doing running across the field when he doesn’t play? Why is he not finding something to do in other after school clubs?
Go into a venue that’s rough by it’s very nature, you probably won’t encounter someone welcoming you to the scene. You’re somewhere you don’t belong & disruptive to those who do belong on the field.
I said what I said. You changed it. Intentional or not, you did. And I straightened you out on that.
The specific words YOU said made my point. I noted that. You tried to change what you said after the fact, and I straightened you out on that too.
Remember me the next time you want to engage me in discussion. I don’t put up with moving targets. Like the coach on the field, I’ll clothesline the guy trying to run what is being said in a different direction.
When an unauthorized person enters the playing field, it’s a question of safety.
Armchair quarterbacks can see with perfect retrospection that it was just a kid, and not a threat, and not carrying a weapon or some other item to cause mayhem. In the moment, nobody can know that for sure. Fan-on-the-field is always treated with significant response.
As far as I’m concerned, the kid is lucky he’s young and resilient. That take-down could have hurt a lot more. Stupid antics like that should hurt. (And, as noted in the linked article, the kid served a 5-day suspension (so the school also saw it as a punishable offense) and police served him with a $200 fine for disorderly conduct.)
I’ll call BS on the process if this coach loses his job as the parents are calling for.
