Skip to main content

a open, bullet-point letter to sports fans and participants everywhere

just a few thoughts I’ve had on the subject of sports recently. between skating and football, I’m a little bit disillusioned by sports and people’s reaction to them.

  • it takes two teams to play a football game. (or any other competitive sport, for that matter.) without the other team, you have nothing to play. the other team is just that: the other team. they are not the enemy. they are not the “bad guys”. they are not the spawn of the devil. they are the other team.
  • as the other team, they do their job, you do yours. train. play hard. do your best. make every possible, allowable effort to win the game. this is the responsibility of both teams. and what makes for a good, competitive game.
  • it is lots of fun to support your team, especially when they are winning. being a fan is awesome. okay ways to express this would be to buy jerseys, wave flags, go to games, cheer your team on, put stickers on your car, etc.
  • not okay ways to express this would be to personally insult players from the opposing team, personally insult fans of the opposing team, to use derogatory terms to describe fans or players from the opposing team, to throw food at injured players from the opposing team, etc. I thought this should be part of the common code of conduct for civilized human beings, but I’ve been proven wrong in recent weeks.
  • when your team (or favorite competitor – for individual sports) wins, celebrate! enjoy the win, but in a gracious way.
  • when your team (or favorite) loses, be gracious about that as well. do not express your disappointment with anger or insults.
  • back story: when I was in college, I made an uncharacteristic decision and joined a sorority. one of the ‘rules’ of the sorority, was that members were not to drink, smoke, or do things while wearing their letters that would reflect badly on the sorority. while my 18 year old, generation X, rebellious self found the existence of those constraints to be annoying at the time, I can see the wisdom behind it.
  • the point: when wearing team colors, YOU speak for the team. the second you put on that jersey and step on the field, YOU no longer represent only yourself and where you come from. you represent the team, the organization, and the city that supports you. with your words AND your actions.
  • when kids play sports, they are taught a lot of things. one of those things is the rules of the game and strategies for playing it well. another of those things is good sportsmanship. during the game, they are encouraged to play fairly and nicely. at the end of the game, they are encouraged, if not required, to do a cheer for the OTHER team, shake hands or high five and say “good game” to their opponents. and then they have snacks.
  • they are not encouraged to taunt the other team. they are also not encouraged to use expletives as they celebrate their victory or bemoan their defeat.
  • winning AND losing both happen in sports, and learning to be a good sport under both circumstances is important.
  • perhaps our youth sports programs need to revisit this idea and emphasize it a little bit more.
  • spectators of youth sports are required to exhibit good sportsmanship as well. they are not allowed to heckle, yell at, or insult the other team’s players, coaches, or the officials of the game.
  • and finally, keep in mind that it is a sport. it is not a war. whether it is little league, the olympics, or the super bowl. it is a sport, played by people. people with friends and families and goals they have fought hard to achieve. whether they are on your team or play for your country, or not, they deserve your respect as athletes and as human beings.

you may like...

someone googled this stuff and found me!

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe
4 comments
read more »

tater tot casserole recipe

i realized i forgot to post this last week when we had it.  i actually like it a little better than the hash brown one, but both are good.  it’s VERY similar. once again, this is something i’ve made so many times that i just kind of wing it now, although i do have the recipe that kate sent to me after she made it for my family when micah was born. i like to keep the recipe because it has some little ‘britishisms’ throughout, just like kate! ;-) who, by the way, rocks, having called to check up on me the other evening when she saw that the power in our area was out AGAIN!  thanks kate, smooch smooch! but now i’m getting distracted… big surprise. here goes. you will need: 1 lb or so ground beef (or ground turkey) 1 chopped onion a bunch of veggies (kate’s recipe calls for a ‘tin’ of mixed veggies, but i use fresh carrots & celery if i’ve got’em, frozen beans, peas, corn, whatever).  maybe 2-3 cups. 1 can (or tin) of cream of something soup (i use celery usually
2 comments
read more »

beef stew recipe

another taken from the betty crocker cookbook, but i mess with this one so refer to the disclaimer … 1 tbsp olive oil 1 clove of garlic, pressed (or some good shakes of garlic powder) 1 lb. stew beef 3 cups of hot water (I probably use closer to 3.5 or 4) 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 3 medium carrots, cut in thick coins 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1-2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 tsp salt 1 bay leaf *optional: 1/2 bell pepper of your choice; 1 turnip; 1/2 tsp browning sauce (whatever that is) 1/2 cup cold water 2 tbsp all-purpose flour heat oil in large pot. cook beef and garlic in oil about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown. add hot water, 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. cover and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef is almost tender. stir in remaining ingredients except cold water and flour. cover and simmer
Post a Comment
read more »

“you should have your head examined!”

… i just did! yup, yesterday i had the thrilling experience of sitting in a hospital waiting room for 2 hours, followed by another in a trauma room.  no, i don’t think i had suffered any sort of major trauma – i think that’s just what room they had left to stick me in.  i mused about where we would go if they had to kick us out because a ‘real’ trauma situation arose.  thankfully, we didn’t have to learn the answer to that.  i guess i was a traumatic as it got during that window of time. backing up, i wound up in the hospital yesterday because micah threw some clothes on the ground.  the night before i had been folding laundry in the living room.  i had a couple of stacks of ‘hang up’ clothes that were draped over the baby gate in front of the fireplace.                         yes, it’s a christmas picture, but i knew i had it in my stash.  at any rate, there’s the ugly baby gate that the clothes were hanging on.  also notice the wood mantle above it that the nativity set is on. 
2 comments
read more »

tootin' my own horn! (for the sake of the earth)

so i'm not usually one to blab about how 'green' i am, but in honor of earth day tomorrow, i've decided to take a personal inventory of the choices i make daily that affect the future of our planet and the quality of our lives. i'm not usually an earth day celebrator since i try to treat every day as though it were earth day, and not just once a year. but i figured this was a good excuse. i've always walked a bit on the green side, but i really took a turn about a year and a half ago when i was influenced by raffi - yes, the children's musician - after reading his autobiography, life of a children's troubadour . this is, by the way, a fantastic book and i highly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed his music, or even remotely cares about children's or environmental advocacy. i don't want anyone to see this as any sort of snobbish, 'i am greener than you' kind of thing, but rather as a challenge to myself to see what else i can do,
2 comments
read more »