As a fan, if you sit anywhere near where coaches and players roam \u2014 courtside, sidelines, near a dugout, on ringside or within striking distance of a ball or puck \u2014 the language will be rated R-17. Not appropriate for young children or the faint of heart.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking professional, collegiate, and even high school, A.A.U. or some of those traveling all star teams so prevalent today.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the way sports are and have been since the days of the Gipper, Knute Rockne, the peach basket and Bobby Knight.<\/p>\n
The profanity spewed by those coaching and playing is consistent, intense and driven by high emotions with a deep seeded will to win.<\/p>\n
I hope I\u2019m not bursting anyone\u2019s bubble or shattering naive perceptions that the local coach and players you see in church on Sunday or those cute commercials with Peyton Manning and Drew Brees has you convinced these guys never, ever utter an expletive.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry, but they do. Profanity is simply how many communicate in the heat of practice and games. It\u2019s the true language of sports and let\u2019s not kid ourselves: Cursing is part of our everyday society.<\/p>\n
Not everyone, mind you, and not in all walks of life and community. \u00a0 Many around us are able to hold their tongue. And thank goodness for that or every 9 and 10 year old that just struck out would sound like Andrew Dice Clay instead of Rube Baker, the innocent, clean cut, country fried catcher in those \u201cMajor League\u201d movies.<\/p>\n
I like the Rube Bakers of the world; but to be totally honest and with full disclosure, I wasn\u2019t one of them. My high school basketball coach chewed and cursed me out continually in practice and games and unfortunately I picked up some of his habits. I recall many times the refs delaying inbound passes to warn me to \u201cwatch my mouth and clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was competitive, hot headed and played with a chip on my smallish shoulders. I figured my blue language as a high schooler in the 1970\u2019s made me tougher on the courts. Instead, it got me T\u2019ed up by the refs and sent to the bench a lot.<\/p>\n
Yes, I have matured over the years but will slip up on the tennis court or tee box every now and then. I\u2019m not proud of it and I am working hard at setting the right example for my sports playing boys. But there will come a time when my parenting efforts will be negated by overzealous coaches and teammates that let it fly.<\/p>\n
Covering games on the football sidelines, courtside or anywhere within shouting distance of the coaches, you hear it all. Sunday Bible class it ain\u2019t; but sports never claimed to be that.<\/p>\n
Far up in the bleachers and stadium seats you will never hear the profanity laced tirades of both coaches and players at all levels of sports. But surely you have seen the close up TV camera shots and don\u2019t need a high level of lip reading skills to know what is being said.<\/p>\n
When need be, the media is able to bleep out the four letter words by fuming coaches or players caught on tape in the heat of the moment. Times when they forgot the lessons of George Carlin and how to be clean and stay on the air.<\/p>\n
There are many times when those cameras and microphones bring the game and the emotional language to fans live, in color, with no time to edit or bleep out.<\/p>\n
Recently, Vanderbilt head basketball coach Kevin Stallings was caught on ESPN\u2019s cameras lashing out on Commodores guard Wade Baldwin saying \u201cI\u2019m going to f%#&ing kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dead wrong and completely inappropriate, Stallings later admitted to and apologized for the statement; but there is more to the story.<\/p>\n
Baldwin, a freshman who has had taunting issues this season, was clapping in the face of a Tennessee player in the waning seconds of Vandy\u2019s 73-65 SEC win over their cross state rivals. Stallings was told of this in the handshake line by a Tennessee assistant coach.<\/p>\n
The 16-year veteran Vandy coach would have none of that. Stallings jerked Baldwin aside and began to give him an undressing on his poor sportsmanship and lack of character.\u00a0 The coach did not mince words and his profanity was caught loud and clear for all to see and hear.<\/p>\n
Stallings\u2019 message though was thoughtful and correct and needed to be communicated to Baldwin in the strongest terms and profanity was probably necessary. Unfortunately, it was a teaching lesson that need not be caught on live cameras.<\/p>\n
The head coach obviously said he did not mean what was said in the literal sense and was sorry he said it. \u201cOne of our players acted inappropriately and violated what we believe to be is good sportsmanship following the game. In my haste to resolve the situation, I made a very inappropriate comment. While obviously it was not meant literally, it was still inappropriate. I apologized to the player immediately following the game,\u201d Stallings said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
Stallings is known as a high strung coach that has built his basketball resume on teaching high character and sportsmanship to his players. In the postgame aftermath Stallings did say that Baldwin has \u201cgot some things to learn; some growing up to do if he\u2019s going to play in this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stallings has his priorities right. Profanity or not, he did what needed to be done; especially if he has had to school Baldwin on trash talking before. This coach believes in sportsmanship and playing the game with character. It\u2019s his program, his school and his rules. If a player doesn\u2019t follow that creed, then he should be confronted.<\/p>\n
The use of profane language to get that mantra across should not displace Stallings from the moral high ground here. He was not being hypercritical in good sportsmanship as some media critics have said by publicly berating Baldwin, the \u201ckilling you\u201d line notwithstanding.<\/p>\n
It was good to see a coach put an immature player in his place.<\/p>\n
There have been more than a few cases where a coach\u2019s profanity and teaching tactics were down right abusive and border line criminal.<\/p>\n
Former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight was the poster child of abusive behavior toward players. His infamous throat grab and clutch on a player during practice a number of years ago ultimately led to his firing.<\/p>\n
At that time, the NCAA\u2019s winningest basketball coach had to go. Knight was out of control.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to 2013 when then Rutgers head basketball coach Mike Rice was caught on tape throwing basketballs at players\u2019 heads and berating them with profane, anti-gay slurs.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had a few basketballs thrown at me in my day, but this was over the top. Rice was correctly casted as the villain here and was fired once the tape and his behavior went public. The athletic director at the time was also canned after it was learned he saw the footage and didn\u2019t act quickly enough.<\/p>\n
This latest incident involving Vanderbilt and Stallings in no way compares.<\/p>\n
No parent wants their children subjected to or within ear shot of bad language at games either from the field of play or in the stands. Unless you put earphones on them lets be straight up honest, it\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n
My experience is once nearby fans see kids in the mix they will usually control the language and outbursts, but there are always the knuckleheads that don\u2019t care who is around them.\u00a0 Asking them to cool it will only make matters worse.<\/p>\n
Professional and collegiate arenas now have warnings and disclaimers that profanity and abusive language or actions will result in fans being not so politely removed from the building or stadium. It has gotten to be where security actions are warranted and necessary.<\/p>\n
Playing nice is not always a given at the Little League or Little Dribblers level either. I\u2019ve heard organizers warn parents about yelling at the refs, umpires and even your own kids\u2019 coaches.<\/p>\n
What happened to the joy and happiness of just playing the game without cursing someone out?<\/p>\n
In real life athletics, sometimes a dose of profanity gets the point across with fervor and directness from coach to player and player to competitor.<\/p>\n
Some might say its a sad commentary on the state of sports, our society and morals.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not the person to argue that point.<\/p>\n
#@*$!#^?%@ … I wanted this column to have a better ending.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Get Rick Sarro\u2019s perspectives on sports on Soundoff 60, which airs Monday through Sunday nights at 9 pm on Suddenlink Channel 60 and Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10 am as well.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a fan, if you sit anywhere near where coaches and players roam \u2014 courtside, sidelines, near a dugout, on ringside or within striking distance of a ball or puck \u2014 the language will be rated R-17. Not appropriate for young children or the faint of heart. I\u2019m talking professional, collegiate, and even high school, [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,33],"yoast_head":"\n