Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Suck it up, America

Saturday was a big day for the Massachusetts rugby team. They were coming off a thumping of Connecticut, and were set to truly get their foray into Division I going against Boston College.

Then the referee didn’t show up.

BC, irked by the refereeing provided, requested the University of Massachusetts forfeit the game. Two hours of tension later, the referee showed up ¬– though he had to borrow a stopwatch — and the teams had everything they needed for an official Division I match.

But the Eagles wanted none of it.

According to Minutemen coach Anthony Neverson, there were two choices offered by the Eagles: forfeit or play a friendly scrimmage. With his team already hampered by injuries, Neverson didn’t want to risk the friendly, choosing instead to take the forfeit and give some playing time to his B-side and C-side players.

Did BC have the right to demand a forfeit? Within the rules, yes. Was it a Bush League move to get a free win against an upstart team that put up over 60 points against the University of Connecticut the week before? Probably. But their answer is indicative of a bigger issue; what happened to honor and sportsmanship?

Once upon a time, things like honor and sportsmanship weren’t so cliché and tacky (I even felt pretty lame for writing that last sentence). Sportsmanship simply meant not being a butthead. Whether it’s something like not weaseling a cheap win in sports, using mean-spirited personal attacks in politics or frivolous lawsuits against companies, low blows really weren’t as commonplace.

Now it’s more about political correctness than anything. It’s okay to take a cheap win when it’s a fair game, but if a National Football League player makes a snow angel after a touchdown, it’s a $15,000 fine.

This kind of crap has been around for years. Take, for example, roughly a year ago when a coach won his team a track and field championship due to a technicality. South Pasadena High School pole-vaulter, Robin Laird, just finished her third and final vault. She edged herself into position to give her school enough points to beat out rival Monrovia High School, and she won.

Monrovia coach Mike Knowles, though, had different plans. He walked over to the official while pointing at his wrist. Laird was wearing a braided friendship bracelet. According to Section 3, Article 3 of the National Federation of State High School Associations, “Jewelry shall not be worn during contests.” Therefore, Laird was disqualified, and Monrovia was given the Rio Hondo League Title.

True, Laird violated a rule and was punished. But its sketchy at best that the opposing coach waited until the final event and after her third vault to alert the judges. Congratulations to the coach, though. He won a championship on a technicality that made someone break down into tears. Go sports.

A similar case occurred in Baltimore County, where the fourth-place finisher at a cross-country championship was disqualified for a uniform infraction. Although he was in proper uniform and was not wearing illegal jewelry, he was wearing banned compression shorts. The shorts were black (which is legal) with white stitching (no longer legal). According to a new rule instituted in the Baltimore Country cross-country, “Items displaying seams stitched on the outside of a garment in a visible contrasting color to the undergarment will be illegal beginning the 2009-10 year.”

My friend “The J-Mann” has a saying for moments like these; “Man’s game, yo.” (“Woman’s game, yo” is also completely acceptable). Long gone are the days where humble defeat is accepted. Here are the days where high school students taught that championships are won not with hard work, but with whining about technicalities and being a sore loser.

In today’s world, Rocky doesn’t accept defeat from Apollo Creed. Instead, he whines and files a formal complaint to the boxing commission about biased scoring due to his left-handed style. The thing is, no one watches that movie. That movie sucks because Rocky’s a whiney loser, like Al Gore in the 2000 election.

No one necessarily likes a winner. It’s the reason that everyone likes John Hodgman’s character in the personal computer vs. Macintosh advertisements. It’s the reason Nixon was shamed into the abyss and Al Gore has a Nobel Prize. The latter sucked it up, did something else, and didn‘t get caught by Forest Gump when he sent men to break into the Watergate Hotel. That’s how it happened, right?

If winning was what truly mattered, no one on this planet would ever finish a game of Monopoly of Risk. The second someone took control of Boardwalk and Park Place or Asia, someone would just flip over the board and start whining about how Grandma kept getting all the good chance cards, and someone was a jerk and holed up in Australia.

So, yes BC should have sucked it up and played UMass. Why? Because that’s the kind of crap politicians, Major League Baseball managers, and my little cousins pull.

Most of the clichés I can toss out are sexist (grow a pair, man up, stop being a girl), so I won’t use them and let someone call me out on a technicality. So I’ll use a gender neutral expression; suck it up, America.

Update: According to UMass rugby coach Anthony Neverson, Saturday’s match is no longer a certain forfeit. UMass can change the result by choosing one of two options. One:The Minutemen play a game at Boston College after regulation play has ended. Two: Weigh the results of UMass’ Oct. 9 game at Boston College as two matches. As of now, no final decision has been made.

Nick O’Malley can be reached at [email protected].

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    chesterfieldSep 27, 2010 at 10:31 pm

    My only question after reading this is: for god’s sake, haven’t you graduated yet, O’Mally?

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