I noticed a huge difference in football and basketball; particularly with this word when used between teammates. Around here, use between teammates earned a "talk to." I'm not sure I'd address it at all if it came from a coach.

Basketball is different, though. Maybe it is because everything is so enclosed. Most huddles in football are at least 30-40 yards away from spectators, outside. In basketball, there's as little as 3 feet separating the bench and spectators.

There it is. Rut, there's no gray area with an f-bomb. That's why they call them "f-bombs."

Conversely, the word "@$$" is far more accepted, although it's still edited on this forum, hence the symbols I use for that word. That word may have gotten you some trouble when I was a kid, but not so much now.

Who calls them F-bombs? I do not use that slang term and do not know many people where I am from that do either. So to use that colloquialism as the reason we all do something or interprete something is a little misplaced. Whether we like it or not, there are communities and cultures that use harsher language as a standard. If you penalize every time someone says something like this, you would have a lot of Ts every single game. All I am saying, is use common sense and let the participants know that they can be heard (most are not heard by many) and tell them to knock it off just like you would other things. I do not see use of language to be such and egregious violation of the rules over other things that cannot be warned or have a "talk to" as other aspects of the rules we apply in similar ways.

I agree to a point, but still would not treat this usuage any differently than I do the other word that was referenced. Then again in certain places that word would be seen as inappropriate and it is obvious people are using their own standards for what is appropriate and what is not.

Peace

In my pre-game...
 

In my pre-game and post-game.

Just about everyone that I know of. It is very common and widespread.

The warning is a mention that we're noticing the elevated behavior. In the OP, he asked about the case where there was no cursive language. I have no T in that case, but a comment like "coach, your voice is quite loud during the intermission".

An elevated "I'll throw your a$$ out" isn't appropriate in an freshman educational setting, imho.

Like I said, if it's persistent after a reminder, then I may write it down. Or better yet, document it to my local referee board and let them deal with it.

Camron,

You live out west. You are not Black, you are not someone from the inner city and you are not from the south side. There are a lot of people in this world you do not know, trust me on that one.

Peace

And Yes, Adam Is A Bad Boy ...
 

With all due respect to JRutledge, Adam's post is certainly the "Post O' The Day", maybe even the "Post O' The Week".

(Note: I'm still interested to know what those who are from the northeastern corner of Illinois call what I, who has never had the pleasure of visiting the northeastern corner of Illinois, call Northeastern Illinois?)

Again no one here calls it Northeastern Illinois. I was in Central Illinois the last 4 days and officiated games, similar standards from what I could tell when it came to handling these situations.

And not every one of my life experiences is in Illinois. Some of us travel from time to time and have relatives in other parts of the country. I have absolutely no family members in the state of Illinois other than one parent. Everyone one else like cousins, aunts, uncles lives in other parts of the country, mostly the south and they do not say, "F-bomb." They would use the actual word, trust me on that one.

Peace

Around here, we don't call it central Illinois.


Sorry, couldn't help myself.

OK, but you do not know what I was located. They call it Central Illinois and that is all that matters. ;)

Peace

You (inferring some info from your post) don't live outside of northern Illinois, you're Black, you're from the inner city, and you're from the south side. There are a whole lot more people in the world than there are from that very limited demographic. Saying one very small group doesn't use the term is hardly proof that it isn't widely used.

And it is sufficiently widespread enough that Merriam-Webster has officially added it to the dictionary. (http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/14/us/new...rds/index.html)

Actually Camron I am a small college rural kid. Lived in a small college town for over 25 years before moving to the area I currently live and have for 13 years.

Just stating that the people that I have been around a great deal do not use that term to describe the use of the certain word. And I was responding to someone saying that "The reason they call it an F-Bomb...." was the reason it was seen as totally inappropriate. Just stating that do not assume because you think it is so inappropriate that there are not people in this world that use that word as an adjective, noun or verb sometimes. And it does not mean that it applies to only Black people. The dirties mouths I hear are from south side (does not mean necessarily Chicago south side but the suburbs) are older white guys. Actually my demographic was quite broad, but you might not know that where you are located.

My simple point that there are more than one ways to skin a cat and I have no problem addressing bad language, just think the T is not the only option as suggested here. Sometimes all you have to say is, "I can here you...." and the issue is solved and no one knows you even made a big deal out of this. And the language totally stops. I have done so 100 times with a quiet word and they usually say, "I am sorry ref." But a T then has to be explained and then someone right or wrong is going to evaluate if that was the right thing to do and if it was appropriate at that time.

I gave a T on Thursday for something else and I was asked to explain the situation to the tournament director. And no specific language was used in that situation that was called inappropriate. We all work for different people and hold different positions. Where I work, I would get in trouble if that was the only reason I gave a T on the first kind of action.

Peace

You realize that Webster once put in the word "Jiggy" in the dictionary based on a song and that word was not used widely by many in certain areas and I am not sure the word has been used a lot sense. Language is a fluid and complicated thing and just because a word is used in the dictionary or not, does not mean there are words or saying that are very commonly used in certain communities, regions or cultures and sub-cultures. And I will never likely see those words used in normal conversation with every day people in any dictionary. Webster is a Eurocentric publication and a lot of people are not of that persuasion. And that includes rural people that are not people of color. ;)

Peace

Just because someone uses a word, it doesn't mean that person doesn't consider the word to be inappropriate. (dirty) Often that's the whole point of using the word.

I think pretty much everybody knows that the f word is considered inappropriate.

George Carlin had a monologue many years ago about "words you can't use on tv." The standard has softened considerably over time, but then, like now, the f word is at the top of the list.

Like others, I don't toss out a T every time I hear one of these words, but I will say this. If you T anybody for using the f word, this is the one time you will never hear:

"What? What did I do?"