Football on the Wrong Side of the Tracks

I once took a class in college... Sociology or Psychology... some kind of 'ology' where the issue of nature vs. nurture is a major point of discussion. I've had countless classes at work dealing with the issue of 'diversity' and other related topics. I even have a step-daughter who is of mixed ethnicity. I honestly make no judgments about a person relative to which side of the tracks they come from. But after working seven community college football games I can say I this - the quality of the games, the integrity of the players, and the class of the coaches are relative to where the teams come from.

This weeks game was almost as appalling as the All-Star game I worked earlier in the year and was by far the hardest game mentally. And having a score of 63-40 didn't help matters much either.

Before the game started a gentleman introduced himself as our 'observer'. This means we were being rated. I have no idea how we get rated or what exactly we get rated on, but this would certainly be an interesting game to see how we did.

The first quarter was pretty clean and fast. Then things went to hell.

Both sidelines were given sideline warnings during the second period. Countless times I had to get between players and break-up conflicts. All of us except the Linesman had some kind of Unsportsmanlike or Personal Foul call.

Things really got out of hand midway in the 4th quarter. During a Try, I threw a false start on the left tackle. The players had begun to engage one another once again so I stepped in to clean-up. Apparently, someone was on the ground and a player and kicked someone with both his feet. I never saw this as I was looking at another player who had thrust both his hands into the chest of an opponent. I threw my second flag. Both these players were ejected from the game. Naturally, neither coach like this.

What I'm sure happened is the 'victim' taunted the guy and he retaliated by shoving him. If I had heard the taunting, this also would be an ejectionable foul. But, as the old saying goes, we only see the 2nd guy.

The next play, recall this is still on the Try, there was a roughing the kicker. Then, the Try was made. Before we got the subsequent kick-off started, we had another Unsportsmanlike foul. This was pretty ugly.

With about 2:00 remaining one of the players asked me, "blue, can we just get this game over with?' My reply was, 'no shit, lets get out of here.'

Between both teams we threw seven unsportsmanlike fouls and had two ejections.

When we were ready to leave the locker room following our showers we heard a some noise outside. Fans from the losing team had entered the home team's locker room and started a fight. Then we heard a knock at our door. It was a Security escort.

Not a comfortable feeling at 11:00PM, 2.5 hours from home in a city which is on the wrong side of the tracks.

Its good to be home in suburbia.