I normally like to discuss topics about sports training, whether it is speed training tips or workouts from the professional athletes. But, I recently heard a story from Marcellus Wiley, an NFL commentator, about the NFL bounty mess that is happening, that made me want to change gears today.

He said when he was eleven, he was a running back on his football team beating this team by 4 touchdowns. An opposing player tackled him by aiming at his knees and he hurt his knee sitting the rest of the game (not much time left anyways). Later that season in an all-star game, that same opponent came up to him apologizing for the hit. He said, “coach told us if we take you out we could win the game.”

I’m just going to let that sink in for a second.

Okay, let’s keep sports in perspective and what we’re trying to teach kids here. While you are thinking about that, here are a few stories from my past of not-so-stellar moments by our role model adults.

In eighth grade I went to watch my brother’s fourth grade basketball game. The only time I ever got to watch him because I had my own practice and game schedule to keep. They were one referee short and my mom volunteered me to help ref (something I had never done, nor will do again).

I made two calls the whole game, both on my brother and had parents yelling at me. Thinking my dad would shut them up I realized he was the one who initiated the egging of me (I’m just kidding that never happened). But, I do remember the face of one dad yelling at me to make a call. An 8th grade referee who they saw come out of the stands, for a meaningless 4th grade rec game.

My junior year, we had a big game against Dublin at our place which was televised on the local cable channel. A father of a kid on the FRESHMAN basketball team, not JV or Varsity, got kicked out of the game for his obnoxious yelling. What exactly was his stake in the game?

When I was a strength coach at Columbus Academy, I witnessed a Whitehall parent continue to heckle our point guard from the stands. Calling him a hot-dog and just being an a$$. Was this necessary for two teams barely over .500 in a regular season game in front of maybe 50 fans?

My nephew was 10 or 11 when his football team played an away game for a league title. Despite some awful home cooking from the referees, several parents being escorted out of the stadium, his team won, and got a trophy. It was displayed in the restaurant of one of the parents, until it was stolen the following weekend by some drunk parents of the opposing team. I’m sorry, was this the Lombardi Trophy.

Finally, I like to apologize as a Ohio State Buckeye fan to William Buford. This kid has been a model student athlete for the Buckeyes basketball program for four years and he has a few bad games and gets crucified by the fans for it. Some of the social media blasts that have been written about him are embarrassing. Ultimately, he is trying his best and trust me he feels a heck of a lot worse than you do when he fails to deliver in the clutch.

Great shot against Michigan State and I hope you keep it going throughout the tourney. I know he’ll have continued success as he will move on to the pros. Where will the haters be?

If you have some similar stories, feel free to post them on the blog. I would love to hear them and I know that you have stories.

My point is, let’s keep this in perspective. Who is playing the game? Who is it for? I have great memories of my athletic years, let’s let our kids have their own great memories. Encourage them to be the best they can be and you be the model parent and citizen that they should be proud to look up to.