When Sports Parents Attack!

If you play school sports or are on any other organized sports team, you probably know how important parents are. They pay for your sports gear, they drive you to games and they help with coaching. But sometimes parents get a little too intense at games and forget about the basic rules of sportsmanship. From tackling players on the field to punching out refs, find out what happens in cases when sports parents attack!

When Parents Attack! - Dad Tackles Player

It's one thing for your mom or dad to cheer you on in an embarrassingly loud fashion for the whole game - but it's totally out of line when a parent decides to stick up for their kid by tackling another player. That's what happened in a football game in Stockton, California, when a coach charged on to the field and completely levelled a 13 year-old player, who had just thrown a late hit on his son. It's easy for parents to get emotional at their kids' games, but tackling a kid on the field and starting a brawl is a sign that you may have a screw loose.

When Parents Attack! - Kicking And Screaming

A brawl at a youth soccer game in Los Angeles in 2001 seemed a lot like something out of Kicking And Screaming, where Will Ferrell plays an over-caffeinated soccer coach who takes winning way too seriously. The real-life brawl involved 30 parents and apparently broke out when an assistant coach on one of the teams tried to pick a fight with an opposing player during the game. When the dust settled on this poor parental performance, three parents were arrested, others suffered injuries from being hit by umbrellas and baby strollers and two coaches and one parent were banned for life by the American Youth Soccer Association.

When Parents Attack! - Basketball Game Turns Into WWE

A high school basketball referee in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania may have considered asking for "danger pay" after a parent body slammed him on the gym floor during a game in 2004. Peter Dukovich was charged with assault for his wrestling maneuver, which happened just moments after his wife was asked to leave the game for yelling and swearing at the same referee. Referees make bad calls all the time but that's no excuse for screaming obscenities or turning a school basketball court into a wrestling arena.

When Parents Attack! - Setting The Wrong Example

There are numerous other cases of parents brawling with other parents, attacking referees or even picking fights with kids during youth sports events. These kinds of events not only set a bad example for kids, they also take a lot of the fun out of playing youth sports. It's not so much fun to play a soccer game when some dad with anger problems might start a riot if a referee misses an offside call. Most parents who are involved in youth sports are great - but there are enough nutbars out there that many leagues now require parents to agree to a code of conduct on how to behave during games. You would think the proper behavior at a game would be simple and obvious - cheer for your kid's team, leave the ref alone and definitely don't attack any kids.

Have you ever seen a parent lose it a sporting event? Have you ever seen a parent attack a referee, a coach, another parent or a kid during a game? Send Kidzworld your stories of When Parents Attack and we'll post them right here.

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Read more: Sports Almanac