On April 27th, Ricardo Portillo, a 46 year old soccer referee, was punched in the face by a 17 year old soccer player who didn't like a call that he had made. Ricardo was taken to the hospital where he then slipped into a coma. Today, he was pronounced dead.
In the video in the first link Portillo's daughter plainly states that this attack on her father was not the first. In the clip that follows, it is made clear that he is not the only referee of an adolescent sport who has suffered a brutal attack from a player.
Over and over we hear parents justify reasons why they want their children to start out playing sports from a young age and stick with them through high school - because it teaches teamwork, cooperation, respect. Because it keeps them out of trouble and, of course, because it offers a "healthy" way to take out aggression. But after seeing what happened in Steubenville, and what happened in this case along with many others like it, one can't help but wonder what these kids are really learning. Are sports really teaching kids to play nice with others, or are we as a society putting student athletes on such a high pedestal that they find themselves to be above any understanding of human decency?
Somewhere between letting elementary school students pick their own teams for dodgeball, leaving the chubby redhead crying in the bathroom stall, and letting the high school varsity football captain get away with completely word for word plagiarizing 6 papers because he was "so busy with practice and running the team so well this year" (happened at my high school - my ex boyfriend - he loved to brag about it), we've fertilized the path these athletes walk on until they grew into monsters.
A 17 year old punched a 46 year old man in the face for making a call that he didn't approve of, and no one, not even his own daughter, felt shocked by this. Something is very wrong here, and until student athletes are removed from the pedestal we have them on right now, these acts of aggression and hate will continue.
Wow! I have been playing soccer since I was four years old, and played on the women's team at New Paltz. I can honestly say I have never seen this type of violence on the field between a referee and a player. Yes, I have seen opposing team members fight, but never with an official. In the case of violence on the field, I don't think it's because athletes think they are superior to other people. I think its because our society values success and winning so much. We are taught that winning is everything, and winning and being successful gets you places.
ReplyDeleteAs for in the classroom, I have definitely seen athletes get special treatment. Why is winning championships more valuable than getting A's?