By Gil Fried, University of West Florida
The New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) membership voted recently in favor of a proposed update to the sportsmanship bylaws. NMAA high schools voted (almost 80% approved) for Bylaw 7.7.4 – Crowd Control & Unsportsmanlike Conduct. The new policy will be enacted beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
The updated bylaw now specifies the possibility of suspension of athletes, coaches, related personnel, and fans for Unsportsmanlike Conduct and provides as follows:
1. Any time an egregious act of unsportsmanlike conduct by a team participant, including a coach, occurs two or more times during the same season, at the same school, in the same activity, the team will be suspended from participation in that activity for the remainder of the season.
2. Any time an egregious act of unsportsmanlike conduct by a non-team participant occurs two or more times during the same season, at the same school, in the same activity, the non-team member, along with all school spectators will be suspended from attendance in that activity for the remainder of the season.
3. Unsportsmanlike conduct is defined in the NMAA Handbook as non-compliance with sport specific rules and NMAA policies, including behaviors incompatible with “Compete with Class” and the interscholastic educational objective. Examples of egregious unsportsmanlike conduct by participants, coaches, or spectators include but are not limited to, fans entering the playing surface to engage in acts of violence or abuse, constant verbal attacks on officials, attacking other fans, coaches physically or verbally attacking officials, players fighting other players during post game handshakes, or student sections verbally chanting inappropriate or demeaning comments towards individuals, teams, or officials.
4. In the event the second act of misconduct occurs when there are no contests left in the current season, the penalty may be applied to the next season in the same activity. The NMAA will notify the school that the team and/or individual/spectators has been placed on warning after the first offense.
I am all in favor of changing the landscape associated with unsportsmanlike conduct. For years we have been facing a major challenge with officials, coaches, players, and fans being insulted, cursed, abused, and attacked. The question is whether a rule will do anything to stop such conduct? The SEC adopted fines to try and discourage fans rushing the fields after football and basketball games. Such fines have not really reduced the number and frequency of these field/court rushes.
While I applaud the NMAA for trying to take a stand, what really needs to be undertaken is an examination of what might be the root cause of such conduct. Is it our hyper competitive nature, is it parents reliving their youth through their kids, is it parents pushing Johnny or Sally to excel so they can get a scholarship, is it our more violent society, etc…? There are numerous possible issues, but we need to examine the root cause before we can really develop appropriate strategies to change behavior.
For example, most stadiums and arenas have fan codes of conduct. These are often printed, posted, conveyed over screens, announced on loudspeakers, etc… and people are still curing up a storm, acting inappropriately, and getting into fights. Thus, it is to be seen whether the NMAA’s new rule will actually change any behavior.
What I know is that there will be litigation over the rule and various injunctions and efforts to limit its applicability. The first issue will be interpretation of terms in the new rules. For example, how will egregious acts be defined? Can some claim they were harmed by the acts of others? What if actions were provoked or justified? What happens if one infraction is by a mom and the next by a father, will that count as one violation each for a combined two violations even though it involves one athlete? What if a team is suspended or fans are not allowed to attend some games, will that be a breach of any possible sponsorship or similar contracts for a school? Will such a violation harm a visiting team if games need to be cancelled? What if there is a claim that there was inappropriate language (let’s say racial terms) and a team is punished, and then the complaint turns out to be wrong? Is there a penalty for filing a false claim of unsportsmanlike conduct? Who will investigate such claims, and will some competitors use it as a weapon against others by filing multiple complaints to distract an opposing coach or team?
The devil is always in the details and while the rule is a good idea, there will always be new issues that will arise and cause additional issues.
