Great point. There is enough influences on young people already. All of us need to set the highest possible examples.

I am assigning this year at the college level. Any of the people that work games for me have personal legal problems borne from poor judgment and they are done. I dropped 4 from the inherited roster based on this. I have also asked them to not be seen drinking any alcohol anywhere in the towns they work in after games. Character and its perception is of paramout importance in our business.

It is more important by an order of magnitude for coaches and school administrators.

It's very interesting to me that 30 years ago when I started all this officiating stuff we measured the length of a road trip by the amount of beer we needed to buy for the drive home.

My how so much has changed over the years! I truely would not even consider drinking after a game if I had to drive anywhere after. Once I am back in my hotel room, I will have a night cap.

My first games were 23 years ago. We'd have the first round cracked open before we left the school parking lot.

Times have changed -- for the better in this regard.

I always drink an entire bottle before leaving the gym parking lot. Of course, I drink Diet Dr. Pepper. ;)

I'm not sure if you being overcaffinated would be a good thing or not! :D

Having read all the posts after mine
 

I am impressed. Very thoughtful and considerate answers. I thought at least one of you would whack me, and tell me to shut up and sit down.

The result to me is that I agree with you. I thought maybe some of you were just being weenies because you hate coaches at a cellular level. While that may still be true, you still didn't make me into road kill. Thanks

Juuulie, if you're reading this... I'd still like to read the piece you wrote on female athletes I asked you about a long time ago. I just don't want to pay $25 to read it.

Update
 

It was reported in this morning's newspaper that the all three of the coaches are out of a job for at least a year. They were also offered the option of resigning and the two assistant coaches (who are brothers) did just that. The head coach is having his attorney speak to the school district about the situation before he decides what he'll do. He said something about the whole thing being blown out of proportion because this school's coaches have a bad reputation.

Update to the update
 

It was reported this morning that the head coach was "relieved of his duties" (read: "fired") as head coach. However, he still can retain his job as a security officer at that school. Go figure.