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Friday night, we were reminded of a situation a few years ago.
I was umpire, and A ran a simple dive play up the middle. The TE came out to block, missed his block and stood there. He was just looking around and not paying attention. Well, the pile rumbled forward a couple of hards and fell across the back of his legs. When we cleared the pile, it was apparent the kid was hurt. We stop the clock and call in the trainer. The wings (4 man crew) are on their sidelines, and the R and I get together near the ball.
The trainers/coaches come out, take a look, and determine he broke his leg. They call over the ambulance. While the kid is being taken care of, we send the players to their sidelines. As soon as the ambulance starts up, the kid's mother freaks out and runs onto the field. We don't think anything of it, since she's obviously concerned for her kid and wants to be with him. Turns out she wanted to give us a piece of her mind. She rants a raves about how it is our fault her kid is hurt. If we "had paid attention and called the game right, this would have never happened." She's hysterical. The coaches near the kid look over and do nothing. Our R tells her she should either look over her kid or leave the field. This really pisses her off and she dives in again. Still the coaches ignore her and let her rant. Finally our R goes to the coach and tells him to get her off the field. The coach, after giving a stupid look, says "Well, she's got a point." He then grabs the lady and gets her onto the ambulance with her kid.
As the coach runs off the field back to the sidelines, he stops by the huddle on the sidelines. Our wing clearly hears him say "Looks like they won't flag anything tonight. If they can cheat and give the game away, I guess you guys will have to do whatever it takes to win." Having not heard anything that transpired in the middle of the field, he just tells the coach and players that _any_ unfair acts will be flagged.
Sometimes I just don't get the parents. It can't be their kid's fault--ever.
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