Football Dad -- "Late Hit"

[Taz]

I think that they should bann all parents from youth sports. If they want to see the game buy the video.

[Rich]

If a brawl of this size broke out, I'd be tempted to leave and let the police sort it out

[Bob M.]

REPLY: As for the question of what to do when a brawl breaks out (just "take numbers" or actively get involved in breaking it up), Alan Goldberger, legal consultant to NASO and a frequent contributor to REFEREE magazine in the area of sports and the law, responded to my e-mail asking his opinion regarding these two strategies. He says,

"As to your question, conventional wisdom isn't so wise. In fact, it is a crock.
Short answer: to 'take numbers' is a major copout. Liability risk is
100x greater while you stand around, "losing control of the game." My
feeling is that doing anything less than taking every action possible to
prevent or shorten a fight is indefensible. Key, in my mind, is good
mechanics, nailing taunting/baiting the first time, not turning your
back, and not leaving opponents unsupervised during dead ball periods.
Football, any sport. If you let them fight, it's the eyes of those
present, it's your fault, 99% of the time."

[waltjp]

Bob,

Alan's reply addresses ways to prevent this from happening but doesn't give any advice on what to do it things do get out of hand. I'm all for stepping in if I can handle the situation and trying to prevent things from spiraling out of control but what happens when the number of combatants outnumbers the officials? At some point we have to consider our own safety too.

Walt

[OverAndBack]

I'm beginning to think there's no easy answer.

Try to break it up and risk being complicit in an injury.

Stand aside and risk being hit with a sin of omission.

Maybe that's why we get the big bucks.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: waltjp...here's what Alan advises for your last question:

"If it really gets away and there are too many people, you still need to
focus on not letting it get worse. That's why you need to be very
pro-active if it even looks like a fight is 10 minutes away. At least
one guy in every fight usually doesn't want to be there, anyway. If
they have a chance to retreat, they often will, especially if you are
looming close by, giving the appearance that you are looking for a
victim of your own.

The longer it goes on and the more people involved, of course, the worse
it is for us. So you need to do something other than stand around.
Separate somebody. Push, pull, blow whistles -- act like more of an
escaped mental patient than they do. It's your field that they are
desecrating.

Ever see films where officials are standing around during one of these
things. Anything look worse? or more out of control?"