Let Me Play
Or My Daddy Will Shoot You
By Daniel Muniz

In Philadelphia, Wayne Derkotch was upset that his son did not get enough playing time in a football game that was part of a league for six and seven year olds. After arguing with his son’s coach, Derkotch pulled a gun on him.

Derktoch then fled the scene before the situation escalated any further although he was soon arrested after the coach filed a complaint with the police.

Unfortunately, incidents like this are becoming far too commonplace all over America.

Sadly, some parents are out of control.

Teachers in our public school system have long complained about this phenomenon but most school districts have never taken it seriously. But educators know that such altercations are becoming much too common because they have had to deal with a rising number of confrontational mothers and fathers.

At a mortgage bank I once worked at, a co-worker who coached a Little League baseball team once explained to me that every season he has had to call the cops on numerous occasions because of enraged parents. There were a few times that he and other adults were actually afraid of what some of these upset people could end up doing because of how livid they were. It was usually mothers and fathers loudly arguing with him about what he should have done or with the umpire about every perceived sleight.

But worse, my former co-worker said that there were some kids that should not even be on any team because they were terrible baseball players. Even though it was Little League, there is still a level of skill and talent required and some of these children didn’t have it yet their parents still had a lot of unrealistic expectations about their performance and about the outcome of all the games.

My co-worker’s wife also served on the board of directors of the same local Little League that he coached in and he mentioned that every year there were lawsuits filed by upset parents. Most of the litigation was about kids who didn’t get enough playing time.

So what is going on here? How did parents get to become so obsessive with the sports that their children are involved in?

I know the world is full of idiots so it is not any big shock to me that some bonehead gets overexcited. However, what surprised me the most is when I discovered a handful of acquaintances and friends who on the surface are intelligent tranquil people, but when their child is playing in a sport; they turn into hideous deranged animals.

One acquaintance of mine told me that he stopped going to his daughter’s games because on several occasions, he had been thrown out of the gym. He explained to me that there was some threshold that he passed in which he could no longer control himself. He said that he knew better but that he just didn’t understand what was coming over him or why he behaved like that.

It shocked me to discover that side of his personality because he always seemed to be a jovial mature individual.

Perhaps it is the same thing that happens with road rage.

I have known plenty of calm sensible people who just lose it when they are driving on the road. If they become frustrated, they end up screaming obscenities, giving hand gestures, and some are even willing to use their car as a weapon. But off the road, they return to their normal relaxed self.

The idiots I can understand because they behave that way all the time regardless of the circumstance. It is the ordinary normal individuals that should know better that are the ones that puzzle me.

But sadly, the most tragic incidents are the ones in which parents do not direct their violent rage to coaches and referees, but towards their own offspring. I have personally known high school football coaches who have had to tear away enraged fathers who were actually slapping their teenage sons at the end of a game because they had dropped a ball, missed a tackle, or made some kind of mistake on the field.

It is ridiculous for a parent to be mad at a coach or at a referee but for them to actually take out their fury on their own children is absolutely mind boggling.

But as many teachers have already observed, we are becoming more of an uncivilized society and it will probably continue to get much worse.

The only silver lining is that our society already has laws on the books that punish people who behave in an unacceptable manner. Whoever pulls out a gun to protest to a coach about a game that their child is playing in needs to be harshly reprimanded by our legal system. And anyone who resorts to physical violence or disturbs the peace because of a game needs to face the consequences. The organizations and public schools that host these games have to be willing to file police complaints and press charges. In addition, our courts just have to follow through.

We as a society have to punish people who behave in a violent or threatening manner. The consequences of jail time and fines will probably not deter the boneheads but perhaps it will begin to help dissuade the people who should know better and persuade them that it is only a game that their children are playing in. That won’t stop them from living vicariously through their offspring but it will help these games more peaceful.

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