The sky is falling.
Mel Narol was 51 when he died in 2002. At the time, what had begun as a side job had sadly “flourished” into a full-time gig.
Narol was an attorney for a Princeton-based law firm. He also was a basketball referee, a college lecturer on sports law and a contributor to Referee magazine. The National Association of Sports Officials, NASO, awards an annual medallion in Narol’s name and memory.
In the late 1980s, Narol handled a couple of cases a year in which rec league, Little League, Pop Warner or high school game officials were assaulted by family or coaches of participating kids.
It was mostly aberrational. Couple of cases a year. Front page of the local paper, but shot-in-the-dark stuff.
Then it caught fire. Narol became inundated with requests by game officials to provide advice and counsel or represent them in lawsuits after they were assaulted, some with baseball bats.
But as Narol’s niche practice grew, such stories became so common they were relegated deeper into the local newspapers and newscasts.
Last August, this space carried a piece about Bill Henel, a devoted Brick, N.J., Little League umpire who became chief umpire. But after 20 years, Henel had packed it in. The kids and parents, so clearly afflicted by what they saw and heard on TV, had grown insufferable, finally beneath his compromised dignity.
Then a piece arrived from Maine’s Bangor Daily News about a shortage of youth-league game officials. Officials could no longer suffer the name-calling, the abusive, threatening treatment from mostly young parents and young coaches.
Doing nice for kids and community just wasn’t worth it.
Two weeks ago, the Hartford Courant carried a piece about how the statewide Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference is losing game officials due to the increasing insufferable conduct of parents, coaches and spectators.
Last year, NASO conducted a national survey of 17,000 amateur game officials, male and female. Nearly half the respondents claimed “they felt unsafe or feared for their safety because of administrator, coach, spectator and player behavior.”
Sportsmanship — civility — within and around kids’ sports, they agreed, is in continuing, rapid decline.
And the adult authorities who hold the most influence over sports — from the folks in the truck who select the replays, to marketing strategists, to see/speak-no-evil game announcers, to pros tweeting boasts and threats, to those who select the network promos for their uncivil content, to the sneaker companies, to cable TV’s faux-hip pandering show hosts, to Roger Goodell, who declared that rehearsed immodesty “is natural enthusiasm” that meets with his approval — keep fanning the flames.
Look what they’ve done. Look what they continue to do. Why?
Too often overanalysis ‘meeses’ the point
The late Seve Ballesteros gave a great answer to a silly question. Asked to describe how he four-putted, the Spaniard explained, “I meese, I meese, I meese, I make.”
No one is asked sillier questions than pro golfers.
Friday morning, Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari defeated Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed, 3-and-1, in the first session of the Ryder Cup. NBC/Golf Channel’s Steve Sands stood with the winners:
“You guys were two-down at one point on the 10th hole. What was the turnaround for you two to get this victory?”
Molinari blankly replied, “We just started to make some putts.” Exactly! And as seen right there on TV!
They didn’t “take what the defense gave them,” switch to a nickel-package or a zone. They didn’t poach the net, execute a shift or double-team the ball. Play-action to freeze the linebackers and playing the infield in were not options. They didn’t freeze the kicker or the puck.
It’s golf!
It’s like that Bernie Madoff swindle. You’re not allowed to ask any questions. Just nod.
Sunday night, NBC listed the Lions’ red-zone successes and failures. Al Michaels parroted some of the stats as if they were significant, told a larger story. But they don’t and won’t because the red zone is a statistical con, data that doesn’t matter.
Does it begin on any down? Is first-and-goal from the 1-yard line the same as fourth-and-8 from the 19? Is a short field goal to beat the clock at the end of the half or to win the game red zone failures? Do circumstances ever matter?
No. Though no two are alike, they’re presented as all the same.
In the second half of Sunday’s Giants-Texans, Houston had first-and-goal from the 8. A penalty made it first–and-goal from the 18. A sack made it second-and-goal from the 25.
So, given that the ball now was outside the 20, was this any longer a red-zone possession?
I don’t know. You don’t know. No one knows. But here’s another season in which the nation is told that worthless stats are well worth our steady attention.
Little humanity by humans
Monday night during Steelers-Buccaneers, ESPN presented a this-puts-everything-in-perspective insert feature on Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who eight months ago suffered a spinal injury that left him unable to walk without assistance.
Powerful, soulful stuff. Rough game played by fragile humans. The concern for Shazier’s long-term health remains.
Yet, minutes later Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger threw deep into the end zone, an overthrow of tight end Xavier Grimble. Following the ball at full speed, defensive back Isaiah Johnson smashed head-first into the wall behind the end zone then crumpled in a heap and in obvious, immediate distress.
“Man, oh, man!” hollered dismayed play-by-play man Joe Tessitore. ESPN went to commercials as a medical team leaned over Johnson.
But what couldn’t be missed went unspoken by Tessitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland. Grimble, the closest human to Johnson, inches away, gave Johnson a quick downward glance, saw he was hurt then dismissively walked away as if he couldn’t care less.
After 38 years as the Mets’ one-of-a-kind media rep, Jay Horwitz has emeritus status. In 1977, Horwitz drew local attention as the sports information director at Fairleigh Dickinson, pitching 5-foot-8 world-class high-jumper Franklin Jacobs. Horwitz was next recruited by NBC Sports but took the Mets gig. And he still has a hard time saying no.
Sunday: Jets-Jaguars on Fox, play-by-play from UFC voice and NFL Network anchor Dan Hellie, ex-NFL coach Jeff Fisher, the analyst. Also at 1 p.m., Dolphins-Patriots on CBS, Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon. Saints-Giants at 4:25 on CBS, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.
Congratulations to the Vegas Golden Knights, the first NHL team to partner with a casino sports book. “That was a great game, Dad, why is everyone booing and cursing?”