I have two sons. One plays baseball and soccer. The other plays football and lacrosse. They may play in high school. They are not going to college on a sports scholarship. They are not going to play any of these sports professionally. And while I loathe the NCAA, read this article. Print it out and paper bomb the fields where your kids play sports.
Unfortunately, as any sane parent knows, there are plenty of parents who actually think their boy or girl is better than everyone else. They think they know every nuance and rule of the sport their little snowflake is playing. Surprise, they don’t. They know nothing.
All they remember are their failed fucking dreams of being a jock. They remember atomic wedgies in the bathroom courtesy of the badminton team, because the football team couldn’t be bothered with their wretched puniness. They remember rolling in the rotten stench of failure, and never scrubbing it off, like Carrie standing on a stage, soaked in pig’s blood.
These people are dumb and need to be machine gunned. Maybe that’s too harsh. They need to be lined up against a wall and pummeled with empty malt liquor bottles until they bleed.
The end game to kids’ sports should be happy memories about playing, and friends you’ve made that last forever and a couple of golden moments where you shined. You shouldn’t have memories of when your parent got into a fight with another parent, or harassed an umpire, or criticized one of your team mates.
A recent study – can’t look it up, lazy and tired – surveyed kids who played sports. And their least favorite part of sports was the ride home. Think about that. A kid goes out, plays a sport, has fun, gets dirty, learns some valuable lessons . . . and a parent ruins the entire experience by degrading the kid, giving shitty tips, regaling them with “when I played” stories, and tearing them down.
These are the parents who should be fed into wood chippers, and their remains can be used as fertilizer to grow crops that would feed our society. I bet those crops would taste bitter and sour, so fuck that idea. Just grind them up and burn the remains.
And dear god in heaven, let’s not forget to put coaches in the cross hairs. Many of them are fine, upstanding volunteers who enjoy guiding kids – like priests, but without all the chloroform and molestation. However, there are an equal number of starving athletes who were coached by people dumber than syphilitic Cro Magnons.
This legacy of coaching stupidity is passed down from generation to generation. And the result is meat-headed morons who think wind sprints and screaming build character and make life miserable for the kids. Their actions make Bill Belichick appear saintly. (The only thing they share in common with Bill, many of them try and fuck their players’ moms.)
No matter where you’re from, if you’re a parent who’s not unhinged and grounded in reality, you have your own horror story. Here’s one of mine from the first lacrosse game of the year. It’s a scrimmage. This total douchebag’s son scores. He yells, “You see? You get that ball to my son and he’ll score every time!” Every parent took one step away from him. I went to the other side of the field, because I wanted to practice my Draymond Green impersonation on him. (He later pulled his kid off the team. Thank god.)
Here’s another sad tale from the coach’s perspective. My wife volunteered to coach an 8 year old basketball team. One of the kids, who I had also coached in rec league soccer, is a complete and total out of control asshole. If lives past 18 it will be an achievement on par with the discovery of the Higgs bosun particle. His parents own a strip club where he hangs out.
My wife didn’t start him because he missed practices. Her reasoning was simple: you miss practice, you don’t start. It’s a good lesson about commitment and dedication, right? Nope. One night, around 10 o’clock, the kid’s mother leaves a two minute drunken voice mail on my wife’s phone. Calls her a stupid bitch and says she’s taking the matter to the league commissioner. I wanted to confront this broken down whore, I wanted to tear her apart for giving my wife shit. I didn’t because there have been whispers that her family has ties to organized crime. I’m not going to wind up bullet ridden in the trunk of a Cutlass Supreme over a voice mail message.
So this is what makes me angry this week. Boiled down to its base components: parents who think their kids are going to go pro at sports are insufferable, misguided cockroaches. They ruin the game for everyone. They ruin their kids. They are a waste of space and consume natural resources that could benefit other members of our society.
Don’t be that parent.
On A Lighter Note
(Each post will end with an event that made me happy.)
The family and I cuddled up on the couch this weekend and binge watched the Human Centipede trilogy. Fun times!
The funniest thing in my life is when I tell parents that I hate kids.
They all do the exact same thing. They kind of giggle, then they realize that I am dead serious and that this includes their kids and their faces go all slack.
Then they excuse themselves and step away.
Then I am no longer talking to someone about their kids, and all is well again.
I had better parents than these.
Sounds like the fozzzpawn does too.
Holy shit.
I haven’t had anything to do with youth sports since I played about 25 years ago. I always assumed that half of the stories I heard at least were from people who hated sports, but had parents that wanted them to play some sport.
The only time a parent made a scene or started to run towards the field was when I got hit by a pitch in the chest and dropped to the ground like a rock. My mother, who was at every game, started to run down to the field to see if I was okay. One of the fathers grabbed her arm very firmly and told her to wait.
I picked myself up and gingerly made my way to first. When I got there the coach shook my hand, told me I was done for the day and that I had to let my mom know that was okay and then go sit in the dugout until the game was over. Looking back, I’ve never been more proud of my mother, at the time I thought she was a nudnik.
http://66.media.tumblr.com/871914328970b2b779442b44fa6709df/tumblr_o7tiju2HIJ1rdfgw4o1_500.gif
Ok, I’m gonna give a shout out to a Good Adult.
I was a little league ump for one season (I think…12 year olds?) So kids who could play a little, but were still a ways away from high school or anything. I think I was about 21 or 22 at the time, which is an age where one (me) is still pretty stupid and pretty fucking far from a grown adult.
So this one game, I’m missing pitches here and there (umps have bad games too it turns out), and feeling like shit every time a questionable call happens. So this little shit (being nice here) steps up and runs the count full. As Shiva is my witness, the two strikes were right down the middle, the three balls were all pretty close. After each of the first two strikes, little shitbird turns around, mouth agape, and gives me the full Tim Duncan look, muttering away. So full count, I just KNOW I’m gonna ring the kid up. It’s inevitable at this point. The pitch comes in, low and away, 6 inches off the plate. “STRIKE THREE” says I, because fuck it. The kid wants to go apoplectic, and I’m ready to run him. The coach says “CHAD COME HERE” (maybe named Chad? seems right), and as I adjust my mask and get ready for the next hitter, I hear the coach say, “Well, that’s what happens when you complain about the calls.”
I still have a crush on that coach.
I have two older sisters. My dad coached their softball teams every year and never coached my teams. I asked him why, and he named one of the other dads and said “I’m not dealing with assholes like Mr. ______ in my free time.” Eventually a few of the girls’ coaches started cheating, so he quit coaching altogether after that. FUCK YOU, OTHER PARENTS!
Well, I hate Mr. ______ too.
Bastard owes me money.
I fucking loved playing football, but dropped it in high school because I HATED the coaches. Partly because; angry teenager, but those guys were old school thought process, bellybutton high Rayon shorts wearing motherfuckers.
I did continue to sell the jocks weed, even though I was associated with the “longhair” clique. That’s just good business.
Holy shit. Moose is Randall “Pink” Floyd.
http://i.imgur.com/HKtQGF9.gif
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA!
Quarterback!?
/Spits
//cleans up spit in computer room.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/e43a070e7c697426dc31285bbf0034a8/tumblr_n9a61oOnNm1th7agjo1_400.jpg
However, small breasted cheerleader; check.
http://31.media.tumblr.com/9fa853ff22a3b6f05455ed14a7809cb9/tumblr_msodbfCCoy1r0k2r8o1_500.gif
She was so goddamn hot before the plastic surgeons butchered her.
Bong maker; check.
Now look what you did.
In my day…… hockey was played outside, mothers were liquored up in fur coats and were 10 times worse than the fathers. I learned most of my salty language those days. My mother was a teacher and I wasn’t very good so she didn’t say anything but was one of the minorities in the crowd. I would never ump of referee because thos volunteers are threatened with violence so often it is like an away game in Syria vs ISIS.
I played baseball my 9th and 10th grade until the school found out I was a gimp and was barred from playing. I was a catcher. My hitting was garbage but I could pick someone off at 2nd without getting up from crouching.
My old man is very conservative. He was a priest when he met my mom. He only went to one game and told me he was not going back. I had to convince him not to stop letting me play. The parents were fucking insane.
My sophomore year, we had this amazing walk on. This kid could pitch like a pro. We only lost two home games, both times due to his old man getting drunk and belligerent. We seriously would have had a perfect home season record except for games we had to forfeit. Eventually the school had to get a restraining order against him. Why? Because he was a local cop. So you got violent behavior, drinking, and high school sports all at once.
The kid had full rides to go to any school he wanted. As soon as he graduated, he moved out of his parents place and never picked up a glove again. He hated baseball and he hated his dad.
On a positive, he got his electricians license and runs his own company now. I mean the dude is crazy successful with a family and everything. His dad is still a violent drunk…
The very last year I played hockey my coach was a dude with rage issues. He was always on my ass and when we didn’t win (which was often) we would have “no puck” practices which mostly consisted of skating around pylons and doing sprints. I realized afterwards that he thought every loss was due to us not giving MAXIMUM EFFORT! so we needed to be punished, GODDAMN IT! We were about eleven or so-we needed to be taught skills. Anyhoo, our goalie was not going to be able to show one week and I had let slip that I had played the position back when I was younger. He yelled to me that I was in net the next game. I thought the best way to fuck him over was to not show so I did/didn’t.
Later that year he was barred from not only coaching but the arena itself because he destroyed the front entrance of the building after a loss-kicking out some windows and ripping a door off its hinges.
He was a cop-and that’s why I’ve never invested in that “cops are heroes” bullshit.
Exactamundo!
My eldest son, who is 9, is playing hockey in the Denver area. It takes up a ton of time, and the coaches all want him to play year-round. But . . . he is 9 years old and just finished 3rd grade. I told the coach he was a multi-sport kid, and that I wouldn’t drive to Boise on the weekends just so he might have a chance of playing club level in high school (he won’t, he’s pretty average). My son still likes the game, but I hope it doesn’t become a problem where the coaches take it out him that I don’t want him to play year round. The pressure surrounding youth sports is garbage these days. There is a youth league in the Denver area that does 3 practices plus a game weekly, travel between Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs (2.5 hour radius), and weekend travel tournaments as far as Kansas City or Salt Lake City for tackle youth football starting at age 6. I am frightened by the fucking evil hordes of CTE raged children running around out here.
Fuck that shit. I’ve very strongly adviced a Co-worker to keep her son in flag football and not let him play tackle until high school. Assuming he can catch the ball. Fuck playing on the line.
/former defensive back that didn’t play until HS and was captain of sophomore team.
I once saw Jamarcus Russell play, so that’s why I don’t buy into the whole “black players can be quarterbacks” bullshit. C’mon man, broad brushes and all that.
Parents – they’re why I quit refereeing and umpiring.
Inorite?
When I played youth sports, I remember hearing the parents give the officials shit. I mean these folks were volunteers, taking their time away from whatever else they might be doing. And these fuckwits are gonna heckle them. Even as a dumb kid I knew that was pretty fucked up.
Hell, I had parents from the opposing team even heckle me a time or two. Not that I cared, because even as a kid I was a dick and pretty much didn’t give a shit was anyone thought, especially assholes.
But still. Heckle a kid? Some people need a good beating from time to time. Sad but true.
True story: I was playing soccer in high school (team captain, mind you), and we were playing some team in an away game. One of the parents started heckling me for no reason. So, the first opportunity I got, I elbowed one of the opposition players in the ribs and gave the parent the finger.
Yeah, we lost the game, but we all know I was the one who won that day.
Awesome.
I only hope that serendipity made it such that it was that person’s kid.
Who I’m confident also grew up to be a huge dickhole.
“…and that opposing player grew up to become….Jed York.”
I mean, if you’re just a volunteer who doesn’t give a shit, wouldn’t it be fun to call time, head on over to the crowd, and tell the heckler “one more word out of you and every pitch your kid sees is a strike. EVERY pitch.”
I would befriend the shit out of the Strip Club Family. They probably have the best drugs and copious amounts of Kid Rock CDs.
Hey everybody, it’s Enrico Pallazzo!
That dude’s a hell of an umpire.
True story, bro.
http://media.giphy.com/media/zaK7Dm0YIOsVi/giphy.gif
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Walls (Circus)
https://youtu.be/ZfS6Nl962Qg
How common is getting to bang the moms? I know of one couple, personally, who split after the wife was banging the son’s soccer coach.
Cuz, you know, I’ve been looking to give back to the community recently….
I’m pretty sure Coach Duchess answered that question:
https://www.doorfliesopen.com/index.php/2015/08/27/coach-duchess-guide-to-little-league-part-ii/
I have no idea how I missed that article but it is awesome.
Read the whole series. It’s really good.
“Many of them are fine, upstanding volunteers who enjoy guiding kids – like priests, but without all the chloroform and molestation.”
You would think that, but…
Let’s just say that I look very critically at anyone coaching youth sports. I look at all of my nieces’ coaches highly suspiciously.
Beck – Asshole
https://youtu.be/4-z6Yt2826I
My Dad and I coached my younger brother in el beisbol. Matt was the only kid my Dad ever yelled at, because he was terrified somebody would accuse him of favoritism. And as a result, he decided not to go out for the team in 9th grade, and hung up his cleats. Damned shame.
On the other hand, when I coached solo, I never took him out of the game, and I treated him like the solid team leader that he was. Nobody questioned it because it wasn’t favoritism, and he kept his head down, mouth shut, and worked his ass off wherever I put him on the diamond (even as emergency catcher).
I wish people could just be fucking objective, damn it. And QUIET.
I threw a tantrum and cried one time because my dad was umpire and called a third strike on me. “How could you?” I sobbed.
But enough about last summer’s family reunion softball game…
“His parents own a strip club where he hangs out.”
Also known as an involved Baltimore parent.
Seriously, I look forward to a weekly dose of haterade.
And, to quote your avatar, “The greatest gift a son can give his father is the Heisman trophy.”
So, let me put a foot up your dumbass.
An 8 year old hangs out at a strip club. Just let that sentence marinate for a bit…
I wasn’t saying the little shithead isn’t lucky.
I feel like if Baltimore had a startup incubator*, it’s success would be helping a bunch more strip clubs make it. Or corner stores. Or funeral homes.
* – fucking buzzword nonsense.
I might just name my fantasy team Syphilitic Cro Magnons. Great post.
I know, right? Your kid is NOT going to play professionally, like mine is.