Personally I see nothing wrong whatsoever with running up the score at the professional or collegiate level. If one NFL team crushes the other 77-0, well, it’s the latter’s problem, not being able to stop eleven touchdowns. They’re pros.
Of course, the winning team would be well-advised to bench its starters once the game’s outcome is clearly settled, but that’s not about sportsmanship, that’s just prudent caution, to avoid injury. The second-stringers could come in but keep throwing deep, going for it on 4th down (or in other sports, keep shooting threes, keep stealing bases, etc.) It can boost stats, too, and stats are important to players, especially second-stringers.
Plus, even big leads aren’t necessarily safe. The Colts blew a 33-point lead over the Vikings last year.
At some junior levels of sport, though, like if we’re talking youth sports, I think some sportsmanship needs to be there, since it can be very demoralizing to youth to be helpless against an onslaught. But at the professional (or collegiate, which is basically semi-pro,) I see no reason why the winning team wouldn’t be right to keep the foot on the gas pedal.
My gf played on her high school’s basketball team. So did many of her friends. Thing is, it was just a goof to them, they weren’t into sports or basketball, but nobody else tried out, so she played.
Her senior year the team set a record for the school when they were shut out in a game. Seriously. They were not demoralized, they thought it was hilarious.
At college level, it may depend on the schools involved. If it’s a powerhouse team playing its one allowed FCS patsy, there’s no real need to run up the score past a certain point, although to be fair, every team carries about 100 players, so that’s probably four sets of offensive players on that team, each wanting to score for once in their careers.
At lower levels, I say this: if the team that is far behind is in punt formation, do not rush the punter. If they punt, then “call off the dogs,” but if they try and get a first down, then they probably don’t care if you run it up or not; besides, the more times your team scores, the more opportunities the other team gets to avoid the shutout.
I do remember one high school game between a state power and a team that barely had any business being on the field that went to running clock at the start of the second half, then they just stopped the game after about three quarters. There are some times when an understrength team is so worn out that even the opponent’s fourth string players would have an easy time of it.
I think the main concern I have is whether or not the overmatched team is treated with respect. If I label it “running up the score” I am stating that the better team is intentionally disrespecting their opponent.
It means different things in different sports.
Basketball, you’re up 80-12 and keep running fast breaks and full court defense.
Football, you’re up 65-6 against an FCS opponent and are running a no-huddle spread offense / heavy blitzing defense.
Baseball, you’re up 15-1 in the 8th and are bunting for hits and stealing bases.
It isn’t simply “playing hard” or “doing your best” it’s strategically attempting to maximize the point differential in a game you have already won. Generally I find that disrespectful in scenarios where such things are easily avoided. Not disrespectful in other scenarios, like bowling, where even if your opponent can’t beat you under any circumstance, it would be weird to not actually try to roll a good ball when it’s your turn
At the youth sports there are many ways to make a game “fun” for both sides if you are on a dominant team and the score is no longer in doubt. @Cheesesteak has hit on many of them. The key is being respectful and kind, two attributes sorely lacking in a lot of youth sports.
Other tactics might include using some players in positions that aren’t their usual spot (having defenders play in attack in soccer, for example, or using a pitcher that doesn’t throw quite as hard).
One thing I wish our local youth soccer league would do is eliminate goal differential as a tiebreaker. Running up the score is bad enough in games between badly unequal youth teams without explicitly incentivizing it.
There are other methods that I find more disrespectful to the losing team - things like requiring everybody to touch the ball in basketball before taking a shot. I understand the purpose, but it actually seems to emphasize the mismatch rather than diminish it. I do think that in basketball you could call off your shot blockers a bit to at least give the opposition a chance to score some points. That can be done without making it obvious you are “going easy on them”.
None of this applies to processionals, in my opinion. The only exception is if the game is literally beyond a doubt (football with less time than the play clock left, or basketball with less than the shot clock). It would be bad sportsmanship to continue to run plays in those scenarios.
Young amateur players, especially second and third-stringers, don’t care that much about the other team “running up the score”. They mainly want a chance to play.
It’s coaches and fans who bleat the most. For coaches it’s seen as professionally embarrassing and a potential threat to their jobs.
Adults tend to take this nonsense a lot more seriously than kids.
A few years ago an MLB pitcher got angry at an opposing player who bunted for a base hit while his team was up something like 4-1 in the middle innings. It was “disrespectful” or somesuch.
I agree with the OP. The object is to win the game. You do this by scoring points and preventing your opponent from scoring points. That is how the game is played.
I remember a football coach - I wish I remembered who it was - who said this about running up scores:
“We’ll stop trying to score when they stop trying to catch us.”
Yeah, in youth sports, I’m pretty strongly for mercy rules. But when you reach the professional level, all bets are off. Don’t like them continuing to score? Step up and stop them. To be clear, that doesn’t include doing things having a highly likelihood of causing injury. I’m looking at you, Greg Schiano, you raging piece of trash.
Echoing @Kent_Clark 's question about what you mean.
Also, my Canadian cousins have certainly mentioned this as an issue in conversation with me regarding their own country, so it isn’t true that it is “not a thing outside the US.” Do you mean outside North America?
The answer is it depends. Depends on the sport. It depends on the level of play. It depends on many factors.
Those that think it’s ok to run up the score, is that for any circumstance? In football if the team on offense can win the game by kneeling is it ok to throw in the end zone?
In baseball if the opposing team puts a position player on the mound to save their pitching staff do you bunt and steal?
The thing about unwritten rules is that they aren’t written down. Any reasonable attitude towards being respectful of your opponent will be taken to extremes in both directions.
I checked, and the incident was even dumber than I remembered.
The Blue Jays’ Colby Rasmus bunted for a hit against the shift in a game against Texas in 2014, where the Jays were up 2-0 over the Rangers in the 5th inning (in a game the Blue Jays eventually won 4-1). Rangers’ pitcher Colby Lewis decided that an unwritten rule had been violated.
It’s rare in professional leagues to have complaints about running up the score. Particularly these days when coaches are eager to rest their best players and avoid injury, they don’t tend to leave them in if the game is well in hand. They also don’t tend to maintain the most aggressive approach to offense and defense if they don’t have to, it’s usually more risky than conservative play calling.
The truly egregious examples come from the amateur leagues, where you can get vast differences in skill level that make a score of 85-12 a legit possibility.
He must have been confused by the unwritten rule not to break up a no hitter with a bunt in the 9th inning. It wasn’t a no-hitter and it wasn’t the 9th inning, but he did get 1 of the 3 criteria correct. Of course ‘unwritten rule’ is a synonym for ‘not a rule’.
When I was in high school, our middle-level team pounded a bad team from a smaller school by a score of something like 95-35. It sounds brutal, but after you’ve put in all your scrubs and using the no-clock-stoppage rule but the bad team keeps losing the ball on turnovers, and even your scrubs are hitting 3’s, what else can you do?
Any reasonable attitude towards being respectful of your opponent will be taken to extremes in both directions.