Is this curse worthy of a "T"?
 

Boys varsity game. Pre-season tourney. Player A1 is near his bench with the ball in the front court (2nd half).. . Coach mutters to his player A1 "How the Hell did you miss Smith on that play?" loud enough that 2 officials heard it. Worthy of a T?

Hell, no. :cool:

No - definately not.

Let it go. No T

That was my gut instinct, too. Unfortunately, my partner whacked him...which soured the coaches mood the remainder of the game toward my partner, who ended up whacking him again...and thus an early exit. I personally would have talked to the coach at the next dead ball and warned him and told him I was letting it go because it was pre-season. I think my partner's haste was unnecessary, but he was the "R", so I bit my tongue.

I can't believe that anyone would whack someone for that.

I don't think it should be a T, but I don't think you should have said this either. I don't think you needed to say anything to the coach.

Play on; unless it's a religious school league in which you've been given explicit instructions otherwise. Don't even warn the coach.

We all have different tolerance levels of language. I personally would not have T'd up anyone for this. Just understand that it might not have been just for the words, but the way this was said and what had previously took place in the game. I usually like to give a warning or two if someone is using language that I feel is inappropriate. I would not have T'd a coach for this if this was the first time I heard these words.

Peace

The worst language I hear come from Catholic schools. I do not see many people enforcing those kinds of rules with those schools. ;)

Peace

I have to say that, even as rules-picky as I am, I would probably be pretty hard pressed to call the T s but I would very likely say something to the coach at some point.

I think some people are missing the point. In NFHS (so I'm not referring to college or pro with this, since I only officiate HS), the sports are defined as an extention of the classroom. No sport permits profanity or obscenity, as none of these are appropriate in a classroom.

That goes double for coaches - it is never appropriate for a teacher to swear at a student - sure, it happens (cant say as I ever have in 11 years of teaching, nor do I remember having any teachers that did), but is it ever appropriate? No. And the rules, and the rules committees, ask us to enforce this, through its inclusion in the rules, and regular, repeat appearances in POE's in many sports yearly.

That said - I still would have trouble calling that one without a warning, but I would very likely give the warning quickly, and then the T just as quickly if it happens again.

JMHO

You went through all of that to tell us the same thing? Who really missed the point? :rolleyes:

Peace

Let me preface my view with the fact that I do not care for foul langauge nor swearing, from partners or those invovled in the game. That said there is no way that I would T up a coach for this, without extenuating circumstances. He can talk to his players and coach, and I will call my game. Without knowing all of the facts, it almost appears your partner was looking for reasons to T, or at the least, way too quick to pull the trigger on a T.

The majority of people who responded to this said "no T" - the rules, and the philosophy of the game as defined by the NFHS, say "T".

Far too many officials I know make up things as they go along, and ignore rules or interpretations they disagree with. That was why I went through all of that.

And that is your OPINION, which you are absolutely entitled to.

As others have already said, it's not just what words are used, but how they were used, who they were directed at and the demeanor of the person using them. We weren't there, so there's no way we can judge that except from the original post - there's a big difference between "muttered", as stated in the original post, and "screamed".

Yes there are some words that if uttered loudly enough to be clearly overheard will draw an automatic "T" - IMHO "hell" isn't one of them.