This occurred several years ago, but it worked :
(1)There was an injury on the field and teams back then were just standing around.
(2) One was from a mill town, whose favorite word began with F ,and it wasn't football, as they were talking to their teammates.
(3) I knew the captain as their baseball catcher, and called him over.
(4) I pointed toward Tom, our umpire
, and said : "Captain, you see that guy over there (pointing to Tom
who was standing over the ball while scratching
his belly), he's Rev. Tom a Baptist minister. He gets really nervous when he hears that F word and he carries four flags, one in each pocket. I've seen him get so nervous, that he would throw all four flags at once. Could you ask your players to clean up their language?"
(5) The captain goes back to his teammates, where they all start looking at Tom (still scratching his belly).
(6) A few moments later the period ends and as we were changing ends, I noticed several of his teammates
hovering around and shaking hands with
"Rev" Tom
.
(7) I asked Tom what that was all about
. He replied: " I don't
know, they were apologizing and calling me Father, Reverend and the like
"
(8) The game continued with the only F that I heard was "football".
EPILOGUE :
Most kids are good kids and reminder that this is a school function and usually on school property. Talk on the field like you would in the classroom.
"Rev" Tom was really a high school teacher and basketball coach
. He is also a good sport and I explained ,on the way home, what the players were sorry for when they greeted him in between periods.
This got me so charged up that I wrote , under Points of Emphasis, PROFANITY AND SPORTSMANSHIP for the 2001 NFHS Rules Book.
.....Some football stories have happy endings