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Opinion

Is 'sportsmanship' ill-defined term?

NATHANIEL PITONIAK 
Guest Columnist 

I am writing to relate an unfortunate incident that occurred during the Intramural soccer semi-finals this Saturday. My team, The Shockers, was playing the Nigerian Soccer Association. We were losing 3-1 with about seven minutes left in the game. After a tussle for the ball, one of my teammates was on the ground being punched in the front and back of his head by one of the NSA players. The puncher said he had been kicked. The referee, citing his duty to end the game in the interest of safety, ended the game and awarded the NSA the win. He explained that he had no choice but to find in favor of the team winning at the time the game ended.

This would seem a very perverse result. As one of my teammates pointed out, if the referee's logic prevailed, all a team would need to do to win is score in the first of eighty minutes and then start a big brawl. However, the rules did not force the ref to rule in this way: the rules governing Intramural play clearly state that a team may forfeit the game for "unsportsmanlike" conduct.

I do not write to malign the head referee: he admitted when I spoke to him that the first goal he awarded NSA was wrong and that it was his fault. This mea culpa reflects wonderfully on his candor. Neither am I intent upon badmouthing the NSA, although the man who assaulted my teammate clearly deserves censure, and is receiving it in the form of an assault ticket issued by the UH Police Department.

Soccer is a physical game; as I write this, my jaw smarts from a midair collision for the ball that was nobody in particular's fault. So too is trash-talking common: the NSA player who punched my teammate cited "racial comments" by my teammate as provocation for punching him. If true, saying such things to hurt someone is shameful, indeed. As goalkeeper, I was too far removed from the incident to hear any the dialogue leading up to the incident. But even assuming these "racial comments" were made, it does not excuse punching an opponent. Many of you who have played organized sports will remember that angering and demoralizing your teammate is the very point of trash-talking.

The winner of UH Intramural soccer will have been decided by the time this goes to print. It is quite likely to be the NSA, the defending champions. Forbidding the punchy player from ever participating in intramurals again is prudent, but not nearly enough. The NSA should have lost the game by default, and the referees should receive instruction on what "unsportsmanlike conduct" really means.
 

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