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"Boo!" to people who want to outlaw booing ©2007 oldschoolsportsparenting.com The governing body of Washington state’s high school sports was considering a ban on booing not too long ago. The measure apparently has met serious opposition – thank goodness. But some other group of handwringers is sure to pick up this noble cause very soon. Many state sports groups already regulate – or completely ban – banners and signs at interscholastic games. My biggest problem with these types of decrees is that they’re full of ambiguities and inconsistencies. You can’t "codify" sportsmanship. You can’t even define it. Whenever you try, you end up leaving it to a bunch of self-appointed Potter Stewarts* – usually overzealous teachers and administrators -- to police the process. There’s a fine line between what we know is good sportsmanship and how much of it we can legislate without being hypocritical and inconsistent – and without taking all the fun out of the game for players and fans. Booing doesn’t blur that line. Booing is that line. It lets fans express dissatisfaction in an impersonal way, using language – well, actually, a single word – that’s neither insulting nor profane. In short, "boo" isn’t a bad, unsportsmanlike word. It’s the alternative to bad, unsportsmanlike words. Likewise, booing is the alternative to bad, unsportsmanlike behavior. Besides, razzing opponents is part of the culture of competitive sports. It’s part of the fun. I know I’m treading on thin ice with you trophy-for-trying folks. But competitive athletes -- and even most fans -- understand it completely. They don’t even think twice when they hear booing. It motivates them. They love when their team makes a big play in the face of a bunch of boobirds. But as usual, we have this rule in society that says, "Oh yes you can please everybody, and in fact, you should bend over backwards trying to do so, even if it hurts the majority." That’s all these anti-booing rules are -- an attempt to make sure not a single person at a competitive sporting event gets his feelings hurt. You want to outlaw booing? Fine. Fans will just find another way to antagonize opposing players and crowds. They’ll cheer or applaud when an opposing player makes a mistake. So, what fan behaviors can you legislate? Well, obviously you can prohibit throwing things and charging onto the court or field. You can prohibit any attempt to physically interfere with a play. You can even prohibit racist remarks, or threats of bodily harm, or insults related to physical handicaps or family members. All of that stuff is pretty easy to define and to hear. Maybe you could even take a shot at prohibiting profanity – although, it’s almost universal that the student section yells "Sucks" each time an opposing player is announced at a high school sporting event. And what’s the big deal with that? The expression is so commonplace anymore … it’s more a sign of respect. But when it comes to plain old namecalling and razzing – I mean, even kindergarteners know the "sticks and stones" rule, for crying out loud. At many school sporting events, there are usually more than enough adults in the stands to temper the kids’ behavior. Now, I’m not naïve. I know there are plenty of schools where the kids in the stands couldn’t care less what the adults sitting next to them think. But you know, for all the high school sports games I’ve attended, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times this stuff really got out of control. And even then, no one was hurt. It just became obvious that the kids had gone beyond good-natured razzing, and some cops stepped in and shut it down. And that’s the point … We’re so afraid of nipping potential outbursts in the bud that we’re bordering on legislating the school spirit right out of the student body. Look, I don’t mean to sound like it’s futile to try to maintain order and sportsmanship at high school sporting events. My point is that, with very few exceptions, there already is order, and these kinds of unnecessary, overreactive rules and regulations cause more problems than they solve. Here’s my advice to any school administrator who’s worried that the student body will get out of hand and give the school a black mark: Stay home. The kids will be fine. There are police on hand. There are parents and other adults. You aren’t going to control anything that they couldn’t control. So either stay home or leave your administrator hat at home. =========================================================================== *Potter Stewart was the Supreme Court Justice who, in a court case involving obscenity charges against the 1958 French Film "Les Amants" (The Lovers), said he couldn’t define obscenity but he knew it when he saw it. The entire quote reads as follows: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." |