Sportmanship

Being a good Sportman and Sportsmanship.....IMO it goes beyond the textbook definition: " as fairness, courtesy, being a cheerful loser."

I bring this up becuase, Today as with most Saturdays I had the opportunity to go play co-ed soccer at a local indoor facility. The team I am currently on is not the greatest, but suffices until my knee is back to 100%. Well....the team we played against a (green) team that had about 15 people to our 8. We were up for the challenge. No sooner had the game started than we netted 3 goals. I have never played against a more pathetic team. A the game progressed, the one-eyed ref continuously favored the other team by not calling fouls for hand balls, flying elbows or a combo of other tactics used to gain the upper hand.

It was not our fault that the other team sucked and were no better than a groups of 12 yr olds. You would think that by paying the ref to call the game in your favor was enough...it wasn’t. Should one be a poor sport if they or their team suck and continously lose? Gracefully lose and we a shining example of what a good sportman is. Instead of calling out to direct and motivate team members, the green team was complaining. If my team even bumped a player on the green team they were all over the ref. These people needed a lesson in how to lose gracefully.....I think there is a book by Al Davis (Raiders Owner) on this topic.

I think my team was a perfect example of true sportsmanship. After all we were fair enough to let them score twice so they wouldn’t leave without scoring. We barely managed to walked away with an 11-2 victory. I won MVP of the game due to my acrobatic leap to block a shot and manage to get a knee in the back at the same time.
Now that is a perfect example of a true sportsman....taking one for the team to protect the slim lead we had.