We'd talk about things like trying to distract the free throw shooter or giving a little shove after the whistle under the guise of gaining a mental edge. Even a coach getting a little fired up with an official and taking a penalty, of sorts, to support his/her team. We never really came to consensus on any of them and nearly every scenario that was on the table was supported as "part of the sport" by those who participated in that sport and "poor sportsmanship" by those on the outside.
One of the most heated conversations was the idea of influencing refs on controversial calls. During an onside kick or a fumble, for example, what should we make of pointing in the direction of your team even though we're all certain we have no idea who has the ball under the pile. In wrestling, hounding the referee for a stalling call (guilty). Or even deeper, planting your feet and taking a charge in basketball, which is a strategic and necessary way to use the rule book to your advantage, but is it right to take something from someone that doesn't belong to you?
All very tricky situations. That's why the game was so much fun. It really did force us to dig down and consider who we were playing for and how we wanted to be seen as Christ followers.
On Monday, the Green Bay Packers won a Monday Night Football battle with the Detroit Lions. It was kind of an ugly win for the 5-1 Packers and served as another difficult loss for the Lions because they just seem snake bite by the referees so far this year. I'm a Packers fan, so no "gift" is received with any amount of guilt after getting hosed against the Seahawks several years ago. There are a lot of plays during the course of a football game and one or two plays, calls or no-calls make the sole difference in an outcome even if it feels that way. It has brought to light some important topics of conversation within the NFL, though (sorry that I'm not sorry the Lions are the scapegoat today).
In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Packers lineman David Bakhtiari said he believed he influenced the referee in those two controversial calls that took place in the second half of Monday's game. He approached a referee at the end of the first half and, in short, said something along the lines of, "hey, watch what's happening." So the ref did and in the heat of the moment, made a couple of big calls that had a big impact on the game. Even bigger after we could see them in slow motion and everyone determined that they were bad calls. To be fair to everyone, we've watched those two plays over and over and over and many have concluded the same thing, however, no one has played any of the other 50-plus plays that might have been reason for Bakhtiari to sound the alarm.
So, laying all of that all out before you, was Bakhtiari's conversation poor sportsmanship or part of the game? How about the referees poor calls? Or even the no-calls that we're not examining? Where do we draw the line and how do we communicate it with our athletes and children?
Is influencing refs on controversial calls in bounds or out of bounds?
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