What amazes me is that people still think that the winners of professional sporting events have anything to do with the skill of the players.

As soon as money is introduced, and it becomes entertainment, you should just expect the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship to go right out the window. The owners associations only care about putting more fans in the stands at the highest possible ticket price. The league controls the officiating, and the money controls the league. Every professional sport has their examples of how money ruins them: the NFL that welcomes felons with open arms, the NBA has referees betting on the outcomes of the games and then making calls to get those outcomes, baseball players juicing up on steroids so they can hit more homeruns, cyclists blood doping to get an edge, sporting leagues tweaking the seeding of playoffs to put particular teams in the finals, etc. ad nauseaum. These will all continue to become more and more prevalent until the fan outrage reaches critical mass and they stop buying tickets or watching matches on the telly. When the money goes away the ethics of the games will return. I'm not gonna hold my breath.

>> ^evil_disco_man:
>> ^Duckman33:
It's already been shown he was threatened with a chair, and punched by some idiot Boise St. fan. That's why he "let loose" on the crowd.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Boise-State-Fan-Hits-Legarrette-Blount


If he would've ignored both of them, I'm sure he would've walked away unscathed. Blount talked trash before the game and ended up with -5 yards rushing. Sore loser and a punk, nothing more.


Perhaps the "punk" is the guy that taunted him and got clocked for it. If he simply minded his own business and let Blount walk off the field like he was doing, this would not have happened. As far as I'm concerned, he got what he asked for. It's poor sportsmanship to rub it in after a loss. Hout should also be suspended for a few games for his bullshit. He caused the whole scene by running his mouth.

As to why Blount "trash talked before the game", do you even know the history behind this game and his comments? Chances are you don't, so I'll educate you. Watch this from last years meeting, then tell me who the "punks" and "losers" are. The cheapshot on our QB took him out for the game, the one on our receiver got the asshat ejected:

Yes, there is obviously another side to this story, as we all know americans are the best team players and have the best sportsmanship... I mean, they're the number one country on earth right!?
[/sarcasm]

Seriously, for an american sportsmanship = socialism and team play = communism.

Ok, so you're here to win the game. So what? That doesn't mean throwing sportsmanship out the window. Play your best game and be friends with your opponents. Win or lose, you'll have more fun.

That's assuming of course, that both you and your opponent aren't asshats, which is pretty much required to get on reality TV.

You'll also be more likely to win, because your opponents will either think you aren't enemies with them, or they'll falsely believe that you're too stupid to believe they are your opponents. Hey, politeness is competitive, who would have thought.

While I hate to suggest yet another reality TV show, perhaps one could be made where only the polite players would win? I wonder if anyone would watch it.

>> ^EndAll:
I also like how this is a real challenge for the hunter and the animal. Who can last longer. Not who has the gun.


I realise that this attitude is the basis for the video getting made at all, but I can't say I understand it. Living on a razor's edge between life and death, by highly trained skills, is an effect of evolutionary specialization, not sportsmanship.

Anyone whose survival depends on succeding at this "real challenge" would be offended, I think.

Or would the intense application of skill and effort make them happier, more fulfilled people?

Who is more fulfilled, a hunter-gatherer or a rocket scientist?

Priceless. I could watch people with mullets getting savagely beaten for days, and not get tired of it. Just plain awesome.

And good sportsmanship from Rainford. He had a good 3 or 4 seconds to throw a few more punches after landing the Knock-out blow, but wisely thought better of it. The delayed KO reaction really makes this vid an instant classic.

That was a *brief bit of great sportsmanship.

The nature of life.

I saw a bit of every thing in there. Joy, despair, and indifference.
To much politics, not enough sportsmanship. That is the nature of sports, and just about every thing.

We are shadows and dust. You live by the sword you could die by the sword. Taken literally to mean when you practice something it could be the death of you.

Control, is an illusion.

Regardless of what happened before the camera was turned on, it bothers me that a large group of people would be shouting "Obama!" to the man. Just after Barack Obama stepped in front of a camera and told the nation that we need to work together, you find this. It's just as bad as McCain's supporters booing Obama when he was mentioned in the concession speech. Anybody heard of poor sportsmanship?

Also, if the cops had a reason to arrest the guy, they wouldn't have let him stand there as long as they did. So I'm thinking that he was pre-emptively arrested, which is bullshit, as much as the Iraq war is bullshit.

Looks like he really didn't even see that outstretched hand. He wasn't looking down at it at all. And I think even Mccain would be savvy enough to know not to show poor sportsmanship like that.

Great defensive work!

Football works like this, what the ref thinks happened is considered to have happened. If the ref doesn't think the ball cross the line, it's not a goal (when a 3rd party interferes, it's a drop ball). In this case, the defending team shouldn't contest the drop ball and whoever was about to score should tap it in, but that rarely happens.

It has happened on occasion, last season in a minor English game a player had heart failure at half-time and the match was called off with his team (Leicester I think) losing 1-0 to Forest. When they replayed the whole match a few weeks later, his team stood still while the opposition goalkeeper walked the ball into their net to restore the score. Great sportsmanship, but it also shows how the ref has his hands tied in such matters. He can't demand this, he can't just say it's a goal, but if the two teams sort something out on the pitch, he won't stop them (unless it's some sort of match fixing, but I don't think this counted!)

There was an opposite incident last week, Reading "scored" against Watford according to the ref, however no one except the officials saw it. What happened is that the ball was in the box, near the goal (about where the inner, 6-yard box meets the goal line, if you know your stuff) on the assistant referee's side (assistant referee = linesman). For some reason this linesman thought it had crossed the goal line (it hadn't) between the posts (not even that close) and the ref, who's view may have been blocked, took his advice and awarded the goal. It was a hideous decision but it stands. In fact it went down as an Own Goal for some poor Watford defender who happened to have touched it last.

At a guess half the fans were confused until about 4 hours after the match when the news reports came through. The players must have been confused too, certainly no Reading player celebrated until after the ref had talked to his linesman and I'm sure all 11 of them would immediately admit it wasn't fair. They offered to replay the match but the FA said no, ref's decision is final. The ref got into a bit of trouble I believe, although the linesman who screwed up was running a Premiership line the next week so he's OK. The buck stops at the ref.

Terrible sportsmanship.

>> I don't know what kind of retard would identify with a specific group of athletes just because they happened to be born within a few hundred miles of them.

Umm, *raises hand*.
With whom should anyone identify then? Not fellow countrymen. Not anyone who lives near you... Just people you're related to or are they also off limits? Please do inform so I know how to behave retardation-free according to the rules of gorillaman for the remainder of my life (if I could only be so lucky).

Or perhaps it's a natural, innocent feeling to experience which means nothing, especially not that one is retarded. Still, please forgive any offense I may have caused by rooting for the representatives of my home country to succeed.

>> ^spoco2:
lucky, I do have to say you're a little negative towards the british commentators and the rest, show a little sportsmanship. ANYONE watching that would have said the US could not have closed that gap, that was an insanely large gap to claw back, and more power to the final swimmer for that, incredible swim. And 'In your face?'... come on, brilliant swimming by all competitors, no need to sully such a superb performance with negativity.

I think my comments were totally misconstrued. About the Brit announcers I was saying that this was the first time hearing announcers of this race saying "He can't close the gap," (the American announcers didn't) which adds to your own feeling of "Damn, they're going to lose," and that made his winning by millimeters even more mind blowing.

And are you kidding about the negativity? My "in your face" (which was intentionally a child-like joke, hence the "nyeh") can not sully the win when it's in response to some assholes announcing to the world how wonderful they are, how much the competitors suck, and how humiliatingly they will get crush their competition.

Absolutely sensational swim, just amazing. Hurrah for Australia in 3rd! (all the top three beat the previous record... so pretty amazing times).

lucky, I do have to say you're a little negative towards the british commentators and the rest, show a little sportsmanship. ANYONE watching that would have said the US could not have closed that gap, that was an insanely large gap to claw back, and more power to the final swimmer for that, incredible swim. And 'In your face?'... come on, brilliant swimming by all competitors, no need to sully such a superb performance with negativity.

>> ^djsunkid:
I think this is extremely poor sportsmanship. It is a tournament that is supposed to promote togetherness and getting along- not "We're going to win at all costs" even if it means insulting the country you're visiting.

Hmm. Competition to promote unity. Does no one else see the irony?

If China isn't using the air pollution as an advantage, they would have held the events in places that didn't have such horrible air quality.