I'm writing a research paper on sports violence. Can any of you tell me what your local association tells you to do in order to prevent being assaulted or confronted during or after games?
Thanks

Carry a gun.

Seriously, my response to Rainmaker further down about
covers it for me.

I carry a cell phone. God forbid a fan/player tries anything crazy, but in case they do, 911 is an easy call to make. :)

Yeah - the police will be able to get you medical help when they arive in 5-10 minutes after you have your butt kicked! :)

I am more inclined to agree with Dan_ref! Of course, don't take it into a school - can you say felony?

I think that the best way is to avoid the fans entirely. If you take a shower after your game you should avoid 99% of the fans, who usually leave immediately after the game.

Bradley: tuesday night I had a situation where a "fan", more like a disgruntled mother, followed me into the locker room after the game to give me her opion, like I care, that we called the most onesided unfair game she had ever seen. Obviously her daughters team lost and she felt like she had to vent. Two things I said got her attention quite well, I told her that next game I'd come sit by her because she saw and new everything about the game and maybe I could learn somthing, but the best thing I did is right after that I stuck my head out the door and yelled SECURITY,REMOVE THIS UNWANTED PERSON NOW!!!! She high tailed it out of there real fast. The state of Utah has a bill in front of its legislature this session dealing with added protection for sports officials, I'll keep posting updates as they come along.

Speaking of violence, did anybody see the sports highlights last night with the official that got absolutely KO'd by a very big very tall player after a rebound and during transition? The referee went down like a sack of potatoes (KO'd instantly)I was having a drink at the local watering hole and they must have shown the thing in slow motion about 4 times. Everybody in the pub stopped what they were doing and moaned. Needless to say we ended up getting our rounds paid for that night as the four of us had just finished doing our games for the evening! It was on a Canadian Station (SportsNet channel 32) and my buddy seemed to think it happened in Alberta. Looked like a high school game, but it might have been college. Absolutely disgusting display. What made it worse was that the official was lying on the floor out cold and some male cheerleaders or fans came onto the court, took off what looked like sweat pants and waved air to the official to give the semblance of trying to revive him, though it was just another form of disrepsect. Never seen anything like this in my life!

JamieSlick

I saw the replay of that heinous act last night on the local news channel. They also replayed it a few times, I don't think I'll ever forget the image. Broke the guys jaw and eye socket. The sports caster went on to say, "I hope the league is making sure that guy never plays basketball again." NO KIDDING. How about anger management classes as he rots in a prison, forced to officiate the prison yard bball games. Is that too harsh?

I'm confused. Did he get run over during play, or did the player drop him on purpose?

That incident occurred in Uruguay. The player was an American playing for a team from Argentina.

Check out the thread titled: Out of Control Player Punches Refferee

The thread on the Out-of-control Player who sucker punched the official is here: http://www.officiating.com/index.cgi...e=outofcontrol

co2ice: I think that you did the right thing - although I would probably not even have a conversation with her. The first thing that I say to anyone who wants to approach me is "Get away from me."

I had a woman approach me at half-time of a game and said, "Can I tell you something?" - I immediately replied "NO.", but she proceeded to tell me how we were the best officials that she had seen all year, etc. I smiled and asked her what team her son played for (obvious that she was a mom). She told me and we went about our business.

Anyway, during the end of the 3rd / beginning of 4th quarter I start hearing someone yelling from the stands like crazy. Out of the corner of my eyes I can see that it is her. Of course, I don't need to tell you that her team was up at half-time and was now losing.

After the game I *had* to walk right by her to get out of the gym. I knew there was going to be a confrontation, so I nicely said, "Changed your mind, didn't you?" At that point she let out an unrepeatable barage of comments calling me a cheater and everything else!

Moral of the story: Fans are idiots. Even the (seemingly) nice ones.

[Edited by Brad on Feb 25th, 2006 at 08:23 PM]

...and idiots are fans.

CO2ICE....Did your wife change her mind after u came home
or was she still upset?...ha ha