Player and Referee Brawl

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by #olderthanilook

Officials should immediately seek to put as much space between themselves and any physical assailant(s) as quickly as possible. Doing anything to put gas on the fire (getting up in the face of the attacker) is a huge mistake. Tough guy egos should have been checked at the door. That video is a perfect case study for how *not* to handle yourself as an official in the midst of a brawl.

Again, we are not obligated to some professional stance when there is no professional organization involved. This is a glorified playground game. It has little to do with ego. And this is also not a very structured environment. Yes, it has some uniforms, but so does intermural ball at the YMCA. I have known officials that were police officer being threatened where they had to get their gun to stop any threat at the time. And they left the situation or tried to and still had a threat. It is more than ego. It is you use the tools you have at the time.

And the video is not perfect for anything other than a summer league situation. Because during the season there are likely police officers right off the court. I had a fight between teams one time and police, security (that were police) all got involved. I remember a football game in Chicago where they have security at every game and entered the field when players were getting involved with each other. I do not know what this shows other than there was no security and no non-combatants getting involved. IF you are alone you might do many things to get that threat off of you.

Peace