Parent tackles AR

[espola]

Sacramento soccer dad seen on video assaulting referee says 'parent instinct took over'

The referee says "it felt like a train hit me."

www.kcra.com

 

[Soccermaverick]

What?!? You actually have held a job?

Golden Gate Boy: The perfect comment for you

Archer: What are you hourly?

 

[focomoso]

That would require a major mindset change by both players and refs. I watched some of a rugby match the other day and the ref was mic'd up. It was fascinating to hear how the ref was in constant communication with the players. My impression is that rugby refs see themselves as facilitators of the game, whereas soccer refs see themselves as judge of the game. There seems to be a mutual respect in rugby, not so much in soccer.

I was watching an Aussie rules game on ESPN and the umpire was mic'd as well and a player took something of a dive near the goal and the ref says, "Hey Bob, you make my job harder when you do that," and Bob goes, "Sorry ump, I slipped." It was a great moment. First, the umpire knows every player by name (for better or worse), but I thought that was a much better way to handle that than the very public "stern talking to" you see from soccer refs at the top levels. And by the way, it wasn't a crazy, obvious rolling around dive you see in soccer. No self-respecting footy player would do that. He took a mild hit and slipped. Got right up, apologized and got back to it.