[JRutledge]

Player A87 drops and pass and quietly mutters a profanity to himself.

I might say nothing, it depends on how low the words were said.


Player A87 drops a pass and yells at the top of his lungs something profane about the fact that he dropped the pass.

Depends on where he is located on the field. If he is in front of his bench and the coaches get on him, I will let it go and not penalize. If the coach does not do anything, I will let the coach know what I heard and warn the player.


Player A7 gets into A87's face after A87 drops and pass and calls him a racial slur.

It depends. If these are two players of the same race, I will handle this much differnetly than if they are different race or ethnicity. I think things between teammates are always going to have a different dynamic than if they are talking to opponents. I had this actually happen and it was a sign of affection. I pulled the player that used the name aside and told him, "that might be alright when you are hanging out, or when you a surrounded by your peers, but this is a public and professional area. I am not going to tolerate that language in this type of setting." I had no further problems.

Player B23 gets into A87's face and makes fun of A87 for dropping a pass.

Easy USL Penalty.


Team A is in the huddle and A7 (trying to pump up his team) yells something profane about the other team or utters a racial slur about members of the other team.

Depends on the racial breakdown of all the players. If I have two teams with all Black players or All Jewish player, I am not going to handle it the same as if one team is all-Black and the other team is all-white. It will be addressed in some way, but whether there is a flag or no flag.

All of these situations sound easy, but there is never a one size fits all situation. I did a game during the last week of the year between big time, cross town rivals. Players from both sides knew each other very well (personally knew each other) and had great respect for each other. It was kind of weird, because on one hand they want to destroy the other team, but were very respectful of each other. What appeared to be trash talking at times was signs of great respect. And when there was some trash talking, it was not malicious. So you have to take every situation differently and cannot say, "in all these situations I am going to do this.....or I am going to do that." This is the reasons you need to know as much about your game as possible before you get there. Then evaluate each situation when things happen.

Just my two cents.

Peace