An excerpt from a column in SportsFan magazine
There was a state championship high school wrestling match in New York where one of the wrestlers won by a score of 7-6. Before the official raising of the hand by the referee, he took off his headgear and tossed it into the air. The referee raised his hand and declared him the winner. I think you can see where this is headed.
After the official declaration of the end of the match, the referee was notified that the headgear had been tossed and that is “unsportsmanlike conduct “and that requires a 2-point penalty. You can see where this is headed, right? The referee assessed the penalty and awarded the match to the guy who had previously been declared the loser.
Obviously, the initial winner appealed the imposition of the penalty; the grievance committee – or whatever it is called – denied the appeal. The initial winner went to court to overturn the penalty and be reinstated as the winner. The judge in the case refused to intervene and said that if he did intervene it would make every judgment call by every referee the subject of potential litigation and that was not something appropriate “from the distant ivory tower of a judge’s chambers. “Hooray for that judge!
I agree the penalty was awfully harsh; losing a state championship for tossing a headgear into the air is draconian to the max. But this is not the stuff of legal action or legal fiat. This is a case where the kid probably learned a severe lesson about how life is not always perfect in a storybook fashion. Oh, and if he had to pay the lawyer who represented him and advised him, he may have learned another lesson about how some people will tell him what he wants to hear as long as he is paying to hear it.
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