Frustrated Youth Soccer Referee Uses Facebook to Shame Unruly Parents
 

Frustrated Youth Soccer Referee Uses Facebook to Shame Unruly Parents



An Oklahoma youth soccer referee was fed up with unruly parents and spectators at children's sporting events, so he decided to take action.
A little more than one year ago, Brian Barlow launched the STOP (Stop Tormenting Officials Permanently) initiative and the Offside Facebook page, which showcases instances of poor sportsmanship from adults, including brawling and berating referees.
Barlow encourages people to submit videos of the bad behavior; he pays the video owners $100 for each one he posts on the Facebook page.
On "Fox & Friends," Barlow explained that he wanted to raise awareness about this widespread problem, and hopefully shame and embarrass people into behaving civilly.


He pointed out that videos posted on Offside typically receive between 100,000 to 200,000 views, and he only expects that number to grow.
"When you're on video and you're caught acting like a fool ... you realize you've made a butt of yourself and you tend to change the dynamics of your behavior," Barlow said. "And that's all we're looking for."
He said he wants people attending youth sporting events to remember that these are supposed to be fun for children.

I know this is youth soccer, but the same happens to young basketball officials.

Here is a more extensive article.

Soccer mom and dads beware! Furious youth soccer referee posts videos of 'jerk' parents fighting on the sidelines and offers $100 for footage of brawls in a bid to stop the 'toxic environment'

• Ref Brian Barlow, 44, is fighting back against wild parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma
• The youth soccer official pays a $100 bounty for videos of sideline misbehavior
• Now he's speaking out about his mission to shame parents into better etiquette
  

By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:44 EDT, 20 July 2018 | Updated: 00:14 EDT, 21 July 2018



A youth soccer referee who is fed up with parent misbehavior on the sidelines has decided to shame them by posting videos of their antics online.
Brian Barlow, 44, has been a youth league referee in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 14 years, and finally became so fed up with outrageous parent behavior that he launched a Facebook page called Offside to shame them.
'I do it to hold people accountable — to identify and call out the small percentage of parents who nonetheless create a toxic environment at youth sports,' Barlow, told the New York Times in an article published on Wednesday.
'It's a very visual deterrent, and not just to the person caught on video but to others who ask themselves: Do I look like that jerk?'
Soliciting videos from across the country, Barlow offers to pay a $100 bounty if he decides to publish a submitted video.
Barlow calls the worst offenders - the screamers, abusers and brawlers - 'cheeseburgers'.
'It's the 2 per cent of people who make an absolute a** of themselves at a sporting event, usually a youth sporting event,' he explained in a video on the page. 'It's the people that are sitting on a sideline, usually in a chair... probably couldn't run a 100-yard dash if you gave them five minutes and a hundred dollar bill.'
Barlow, who works in marketing, says that the videos have had a positive effect on some parents.
One who was caught acting out even reformed so much that she decided to become a referee herself.
But for some rage-a-holics, the public shaming doesn't seem to spur self-reflection.
Barlow told the Times: 'Some people, frankly, want to punch me in the mouth.'

I have seen this guys page and applaud him for doing this. Hopefully he will expand into accepting and posting basketball parents as well.

I'm waiting for the first "officials should hold ourselves to higher standards" argument and/or "what gives him the right to do this".