# Coaches Reprimanded for 'Crybaby Award' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 4, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515 "2004-05-04T20:14:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/1 "2004-05-04T20:14:33Z")
[Coaches Reprimanded for ‘Crybaby Award’](http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040504/ap_on_fe_st/crybaby_award_1) WTF? IMHO what these coaches did goes way beyond being un-PC. I don’t know what to say except how could any adult think this was appropriate? ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/2 "2004-05-04T20:41:11Z")
They should have a “special” awards banquet for the coach. This is the kicker: > [@](#): > > The 13-year-old boy’s coach called him just before last month’s team banquet and told him to make sure he attended because he was getting a special trophy, the boy’s father said. I seriously cannot imagine the depth of the immaturity something like that entails. What the fuck did they expect the kid’s parents to do, laugh? Big news, everybody! Johnny’s getting a special award, so call up Grammy and Gramps- we’re bringing the whole family to see this! Get that camera rolling, Aunt Martha. And now, the big moment… Johnny Taylor gets the Crybaby Award because “he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine.” Zing! Is my face red! ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/3 "2004-05-04T20:43:25Z")
And folks continue to wonder why Columbine happened. When not even ADULTS can be expected to give kids a fair shake or compassionate treatment, how can we expect the children they teach or lead or coach to be any better? Disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/4 "2004-05-04T21:01:21Z")
The coaches involved should have their teaching licenses revoked and should be permanently banned from any profession that involves contact with children. They scarred that kid for life. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/5 "2004-05-04T21:02:03Z")
> [@jarbabyj](#): > > And folks continue to wonder why Columbine happened. You know who else used to make wildly inappropriate analogies? Hitler. Godwin out. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_G.Rekshun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@Hugh\_G.Rekshun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_G.Rekshun)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/6 "2004-05-04T21:05:59Z")
> [@jarbabyj](#): > > And folks continue to wonder why Columbine happened. > > **Disgusting**. Yeah that’s why things like Columbine happen. :rolleyes: God forbid anyone should be held accountable for their own actions. Or that their parents be responsible for knowing what their kids are into. Disgusting? Your comments are disgusting. I had my fair share of anguish in school and I owned many firearms as a kid. It was quite common for kids to own guns then and in this state even now. Yet, I never went to school and offed everyone. As a matter of fact I don’t recall it ever happening when I was growing up. Doesn’t mean it didn’t, but I never heard of it. Blame the media, blame peer pressure, blame whoever the fuck you want. They need people like you to make excuses for them. :wally ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/7 "2004-05-04T21:17:21Z")
Hi Hugh, what are you talking about? Columbine happened because those two kids were bullied and picked on and pushed around for years. I’m not excusing a bit of their terrifying actions, just letting you know that humiliating a child in front of all of their classmates is a good way to fuck them up on a grand scale. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/8 "2004-05-04T21:25:49Z")
> [@Hugh G. Rekshun](#): > > God forbid anyone should be held accountable for their own actions. Or that their parents be responsible for knowing what their kids are into. Disgusting? Your comments are disgusting. Right. No need to ever question whether society is disfunctional. Let’s just assume that people do bad things solely because they’re evil, and leave it at that. How’s that working out so far, BTW? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/9 "2004-05-04T21:31:24Z")
> [@jarbabyj](#): > > Columbine happened because those two kids were bullied and picked on and pushed around for years. Actually, the thinking now is this isn’t true. This excellent [article](http://slate.msn.com/id/2099203) at Slate discusses the current thought. From the article: > [@](#): > > School shooters tend to act impulsively and attack the targets of their rage: students and faculty. But Harris and Klebold planned for a year and dreamed much bigger. The school served as means to a grander end, to terrorize the entire nation by attacking a symbol of American life. Their slaughter was aimed at students and teachers, but it was not motivated by resentment of them in particular. Students and teachers were just convenient quarry, what Timothy McVeigh described as “collateral damage.” > > The killers, in fact, laughed at petty school shooters. They bragged about dwarfing the carnage of the Oklahoma City bombing and originally scheduled their bloody performance for its anniversary. Klebold boasted on video about inflicting “the most deaths in U.S. history.” Columbine was intended not primarily as a shooting at all, but as a bombing on a massive scale. If they hadn’t been so bad at wiring the timers, the propane bombs they set in the cafeteria would have wiped out 600 people. After those bombs went off, they planned to gun down fleeing survivors. An explosive third act would follow, when their cars, packed with still more bombs, would rip through still more crowds, presumably of survivors, rescue workers, and reporters. The climax would be captured on live television. It wasn’t just “fame” they were after—Agent Fuselier bristles at that trivializing term—they were gunning for devastating infamy on the historical scale of an Attila the Hun. Their vision was to create a nightmare so devastating and apocalyptic that the entire world would shudder at their power. > > Harris and Klebold would have been dismayed that Columbine was dubbed the “worst school shooting in American history.” They set their sights on eclipsing the world’s greatest mass murderers, but the media never saw past the choice of venue. The school setting drove analysis in precisely the wrong direction. > > Fuselier and Ochberg say that if you want to understand “the killers,” quit asking what drove them. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were radically different individuals, with vastly different motives and opposite mental conditions. Klebold is easier to comprehend, a more familiar type. He was hotheaded, but depressive and suicidal. He blamed himself for his problems. > > Harris is the challenge. He was sweet-faced and well-spoken. Adults, and even some other kids, described him as “nice.” But Harris was cold, calculating, and homicidal. “Klebold was hurting inside while Harris wanted to hurt people,” Fuselier says. Harris was not merely a troubled kid, the psychiatrists say, he was a psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/10 "2004-05-04T21:34:06Z")
So what are you saying guys? Dragging a student up and calling him a loser in front of his school will have no adverse effect? Let’s check in with this kid five years from now. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/11 "2004-05-04T21:34:54Z")
No, to grossly oversimplify Columbine happened because those two kids lacked the proper tools or were too mentally or emotionally deficient to cope with being bullied or pushed around. There’s a difference. And it’s pretty big, too. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/12 "2004-05-04T21:40:04Z")
I guess I phrased it wrong. I am not implying that this kid is going to open up and blow away his school, and I’m not saying that Eric and Dylan were the same. But what I am saying is that when we wonder about high rates of depression, violence and suicide and even obesity, anxiety and eating disorders, let’s not overlook the role assholes like the coach in the OP play. It’s easy I guess for us as adults to say this kid should just shake it off, but I know if someone did that to me even NOW, when I’m thirty one, I’d be a basket case. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/13 "2004-05-04T21:40:42Z")
Well, I was all set to post a link to the same _Slate_ article **tremorviolet** already posted to. > [@JuanitaTech](#): > > No, to grossly oversimplify Columbine happened because those two kids lacked the proper tools or were too mentally or emotionally deficient to cope with being bullied or pushed around. > > There’s a difference. And it’s pretty big, too. Again, it’s not clear that Columbine had _anything_ to do with bullying. Oh, and to get back to the actual topic of this thread, those coaches are total assholes. It almost makes me want to bring back the stocks or pillory, because I have this primitive “eye for an eye” urge to try to inflict some comparable public humiliation on them as what they were doing to 13-year-old kids. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/14 "2004-05-04T21:49:44Z")
My post was composed before tremorviolet posted the link to the article. Somewhere in my original post the ‘Or they were just plain fucked up’ got lost. > [@](#): > > But what I am saying is that when we wonder about high rates of depression, violence and suicide and even obesity, anxiety and eating disorders, let’s not overlook the role assholes like the coach in the OP play. Agreed, to a certain extent. While I fully agree most children and teenagers aren’t equipped to simply dismiss such incidents, I can’t say the same for most adults. Unless you forgot to add ‘in children and teens’ or something along those lines in the quoted material. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/15 "2004-05-04T21:49:58Z")
All Columbine talk aside, this is just unbefuckinglievable. How could a grown man – someone who is supposed to be a leader and a molder of young minds – could get it in his head that publically humiliating a child like that wouldn’t have any reprecussions? Did it _never_ occur to this walking sack of crap that his ass will probably (hopefully!) get fired for this? Did he never stop to think “Hey, there’s a great chance that I’m going to get my ass, and the school district, sued for this kind of scumbaggedry”?? As I reread the story, I see that it was a group of coaches that were in on it. Brilliant. This school doesn’t just have one fuckhole with a whistle and clipboard, they have a staff of them. Wonderful. Watch how fast the sheep coaches start fingerpointing once the pink slips and subpoenas start flying. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/16 "2004-05-04T21:52:55Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#): > > All Columbine talk aside, this is just unbefuckinglievable. How could a grown man – someone who is supposed to be a leader and a molder of young minds – could get it in his head that publically humiliating a child like that wouldn’t have any reprecussions? > > Did it _never_ occur to this walking sack of crap that his ass will probably (hopefully!) get fired for this? Did he never stop to think “Hey, there’s a great chance that I’m going to get my ass, and the school district, sued for this kind of scumbaggedry”?? > > As I reread the story, I see that it was a group of coaches that were in on it. Brilliant. This school doesn’t just have one fuckhole with a whistle and clipboard, they have a staff of them. Wonderful. Watch how fast the sheep coaches start fingerpointing once the pink slips and subpoenas start flying. A lot of these “men” think they are above the rules set for other teachers. It’s sickening to see coaches get paid more than other teachers and not do any work other than coaching. I’ve seen this at my wife’s school. I’d rather see a school without a sports team than to give in to these testosterone-drenched bullies. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/17 "2004-05-04T22:01:46Z")
**AND THEY SPELLED HIS NAME INCORRECTLY ON THE TROPHY!!!** What a perfectly appropriate layer of shit icing on a cake made of shit. As if extreme public humiliation weren’t enough, the coaches couldn’t even respect him enough to remember how to spell his name. As the owner of a few childhood trophies with my name misspelled on them, I had to wince just a little at this unfortunate detail. I certainly don’t think it was the coaches’ worst transgression. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/18 "2004-05-04T22:09:57Z")
It’s likely that some sort of union regulation would preclude this, but… The ideal scenario now would be for the coaches to be invited to a special mandatory meeting of the school board, attended by players, other students, teachers, news media etc., during which they would be castigated by every member of the board for their stupidity, followed by the presenting of special Moron trophies, after which they would be suspended from their jobs for one year. If they didn’t attend, the trophies would still be presented, and they’d be out of a job permanently. Sounds just to me. ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/19 "2004-05-04T22:13:03Z")
I’ve coached pee-wee football and little league baseball and this is just jaw-dropping. It’s one thing to say in practice “keep that up and we’ll give you the crybaby award” or something like that, but this premeditated and planned out public humiliation shows that this coach has no business working with kids. Or anyone else for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515/20 "2004-05-04T22:19:02Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > As the owner of a few childhood trophies with my name misspelled on them, I had to wince just a little at this unfortunate detail. Yeah, that’s got to be tough with all of those "o"s in your name! 😉 Assholes like this guy are the reason I hated little league baseball. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coaches-reprimanded-for-crybaby-award/243515.md?page=2)