inciting the crowd

[Raymond]

There have been many occasions where I have told players not to let the fans get to them and don't engage them and that if the fans say something completely out of line I'll address it.

But I definitely agree with SC Official. In fact, I will say 100% of the time it'ss the fans who are saying something first.

The other night I was working a D3 game with limited attendance because of COVID protocols and I told a trio of kids to stop throwing F-bombs at the players.

Last night I worked at a Bible College where a group of fans was doing everything they could to get under the opponents' skin. They weren't saying anything vulgar or profane, but they weren't being nice either. At one point I was tempted to ask them if they felt like their behavior was Christ-like...LOL

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[sdoebler]

I had a similar situation on Tuesday after the crowd was saying some stupid things to a kid. He made a 3 motioned to the crowd and said something. At the next dead ball I said here is a good piece of advice I got from a mentor:

"Don't take criticism from anyone you wouldn't take advice from"

Would you let the crowd tell you how to play basketball? Then don't listen to their crap and let me take care of them. He thanked me and we had no issues.

Game management stood next to a few bad apples and there were no more comments of that nature.

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by Raymond

There have been many occasions where I have told players not to let the fans get to them and don't engage them and that if the fans say something completely out of line I'll address it.

But I definitely agree with SC Official. In fact, I will say 100% of the time it'ss the fans who are saying something first.

The other night I was working a D3 game with limited attendance because of COVID protocols and I told a trio of kids to stop throwing F-bombs at the players.

Last night I worked at a Bible College where a group of fans was doing everything they could to get under the opponents' skin. They weren't saying anything vulgar or profane, but they weren't being nice either. At one point I was tempted to ask them if they felt like their behavior was Christ-like...LOL
LOL. Isn't this always the case?
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I actually spoke to two college teams at a scrimmage in October about rules/POEs and I concluded the "presentation" with some reminders about sportsmanship. I told the players that nothing good will come out of engaging with a spectator (the same thing we tell referees) and going into the stands will end badly one way or another. I said something along the lines of "Fans don't have the right to say whatever they want just because they paid for a ticket. If a fan is pissing you off or says something that's completely out of line and I don't hear it, you come to me and I will make sure their behavior is addressed. If you deal with the problem yourself it will not end well."

I had one of the teams early in the season and some idiot on the second row was going after one of their players pretty hard and he was obviously getting pissed off. I had the fan removed and the coach thanked me for dealing with it before the player dealt with it himself (just like I had mentioned in the scrimmage).

[thumpferee]

Good topic!
Great advice being given here!