Seriously?
Is your objection that you shouldn’t teach a kid to cheat at sports or that you should?
Well, first that its a serious question in general in the first place (barring all sorts of more nuanced aspects of the whole thing that this article doesnt have).
Second, that its such a short crappy article. I’d bet almost every even semi-regular poster here on the Dope could write something better/more sophisticated.
Third, given, the first two objections, that this turd of an article was actually a MSN news article “headliner”.
Yeah, I going to go buy that authors “hilarious” book right away.
Well, I agree that the article sucks seriously. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say cheating is bad, and worse if you get caught.
If we don’t teach honor to our children, who will?
It is a terribly written article, but the title is provocative enough to draw 335 comments. I suspect that is how it bubbled up as a headliner.
FWIW, this is the author’s webpage:
Well, other than the Exorcist puke-green border, his website seems OK.
Vince Lombardi said “Winning isn’t the most important thing, winning is the only thing.” Teach your children that Vince Lombardi was an asshole who suffered from severe testosterone poisoning. Teach them that sport is play, not warfare. Teach them to enjoy the motion of their bodies as a gift from the Goddess, and the one who understands that always wins, while one who does not can only lose.
I might say teach them joy, but for the most part, they come by that naturally. Just don’t fuck it up.
The article does make some interesting points regarding the ethics of professional athletes; the author isn’t wrong when he says that they cheat while trying to win all the time. Most people will have kids who just play sports for fun, but some people will be raising kids who are good enough to be competitive at a sport, and there would indeed be an ethical decision to be made - do you teach your kids that cheating is always wrong, except when Coach says it isn’t?
Gaming the refs only is a valid tactic if there are refs.
In most casual, friendly games, the rules are enforced by the players themselves. That requires an element of sportsmanship and goodwill. If everybody starts faking fouls and lying about calls, the whole game will break down.
Not to mention the fact that 99% of them are juicing on illegal steroids.
Hell, I’m surprised there isn’t a “My First Human Growth Hormone Kit” out there for kids yet.
You don’t have to teach it, they will learn it on their own. You aren’t programming robots. Your influence compared to their peers is next to worthless.
This is so wrong.
[Moderating]This seems more suited to IMHO than the Pit.[/Moderating]
What? Has he ever watched football? Only the offense says “no”. The defense always says “yes”. Unless it’s an interception, in which case they switch…
There was some commercial half a year ago or so, set at a basketball game. The refs awarded the ball after it went out of bounds, but one kid from the team that got the ball is saying “I touched it. I touched it, coach.”, meaning it should have been the other team’s ball. Then he goes off to tell the ref.
The scene ends then, and we’re supposed to feel good about the kid, but what would happen is the ref would tell him “Go back to your huddle. It’s my call, and I said it’s your ball.” Nothing would change.
It would certainly be different in a friendly game with no refs, but I don’t think that’s what the article is about.
I don’t think kids are encouraged to deliberately cheat by most coaches. There’s always elements of dirty play that should be discouraged. Certain type of tackles in football are illegal. Tripping or elbowing someone in basketball. Moving or kicking your ball in golf.
I played sports and never had anyone encourage me to cheat. Is that ball I caught in bounds or not? I honestly didn’t know for sure. The refs are there and they have a better line of sight to know. I may have thought it was out of bounds. But that’s from my angle and I was busy catching the ball. Someone watching from a few feet away can see more clearly. The refs call is what matters. I’ve had balls I felt strongly were in bounds called out. It’s all part of the game.
This. I wrestled in college and sometimes kids would call injury time when it seemed like they needed a break or cry out if they start to lose that advantage, but what can you do?
First off, it’s not particularly easy to cheat in most sports. Even if you do get a lucky break, you still have to play the game. Secondly, I don’t think kids or even perhaps professional athletes can be held fully responsible for their actions when in most cases you’re in the heat of battle trying to WIN a game.