Championship Sportsmanship

Today's blog post was written by Louis Nix for the Social Foundations of Coaching class taught by Play Like a Champion co-directors Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan. Louis is a senior majoring in Film, Television, and Theater and a nose guard on the Notre Dame Football team.

When my professor suggested I do a blog about the recent men's soccer National Championship game, I had some initial reservations about the matter. First of all, I admittedly did not watch the game. Secondly, I am not a soccer junkie, so my knowledge of all the technicalities of the game is hazy at best.

Photo Credit: Zach Llorens, The Observer

 

Before I looked into what actually happened, I had heard that a Maryland player admitted to a hand ball after the game. My initial thought: "Oh, how noble of you, admitting to the penalty after the fact." I then began debating (in my head) about if it we can really consider it good sportsmanship to admit to a mistake after the game has ended, when the mistake can no longer be corrected or made right.

 

However, I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself, so I read the write-up about the game that appeared in the Notre Dame Observer. When I read the Maryland player’s admission to his mistake, I immediately revoked my initial opinion about him not being a good sportsman. He committed a hand ball that ended up in a goal for his team, but after the game he said he is so embarrassed about what he did and he will regret it for the rest of his life. One of the reasons I changed my initial judgment about his “confession” is that he was so genuine. No one forced him to admit to the hand ball—he did it purely because he loves the sport so much that committing such a penalty clearly affects him very deeply. It also got me to thinking that human judgment (and by extension, human error) is a part of the game—he committed a penalty, but the refs did not see it so no penalty was called. It seems that even if he had admitted to his mistake during the game, it is unlikely that anything would have been overturned or changed.

Photo Credit: Zach Llorens, the Observer

 

At the end of the day, I was impressed with the conduct of this young man from Maryland, as well as his coach. I think they conducted themselves as class acts, and it is good to hear about coaches and players being gracious and respectable human beings, even when they lose. I admire this player from Maryland and respect his love for the game he plays. If I could reach out to him, I would want him to know that he should not be too hard on himself—the penalty he committed was not the only uncalled penalty in the game, but beyond that he will not be defined by a mistake he made in the heat of the moment. Everyone who has ever played a sport has done things in the heat of the moment that don’t necessarily reflect who they are as a person or as a player. It is the nature of sports that mistakes will be made (both by players and referees), but I think a true sportsman is defined by what he does when a mistake happens. This young man from Maryland readily admitted to and apologized for his mistake—that alone, in my opinion, shows what kind of person and player he is. I think he deserves the utmost respect for his actions after the game, and I hope he is not too hard on himself in the future for something he did in the heat of the moment of a game that he clearly loves.