I WAS watching the De La Salle University (DLSU)-University of Santo Tomas (UST) game last Sunday, the DLSU Green Archers were ahead by 43 points with a chance to score over 100 points for the second straight game.
The Archers were up, 99-56, when De La Salle Coach Aldin Ayo rightfully and ethically instructed his kids to just hold the ball until the final buzzer sounded.
The boys seemed to be bent on wanting to go over a hundred when Prince Rivero attempted a shot from downtown in the dying seconds of the game, when he should’ve just held on to the ball as a sign of sportsmanship.
The members of the coaching staff are not only coaches to these young men, but also teachers on and off the court.
The coaches must teach the players about sports ethics, all college coaches must teach their players not to run up the score when you’re ahead by a substantial number of points.
It is disrespectful to the other team, kicking them while they’re figuratively down is not the way to teach life lessons to your players.
There’s not a thin line between gamesmanship and sportsmanship.
Gamesmanship is doing whatever it takes to win a game, like taunting, sabotaging an opponent’s equipment, faking an injury and taking performance-enhancing drugs.
In contact sports like basketball and football, flopping is gamesmanship and governing bodies for both sports have taken measures and steps to penalize and sanction players who flop or fake contact.
Fines are slapped against players who flop.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for four games for his role in deflating footballs ahead of their American Football Conference Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts on January 18, 2015.
The incident was labelled “Deflategate” I came across an American Football article that gave a short narration of what transpired in “Deflategate” and the suspension of Brady.
“The 2015 AFC Championship Game football tampering scandal, commonly referred to as Deflategate, was a National Football League [NFL] controversy involving the allegation that the New England Patriots tampered with footballs used in the American Football Conference [AFC] Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts on January 18, 2015.
The league announced on May 11, 2015, that it would suspend Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games of the 2015 regular season for his alleged part in the scandal.
After NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld the suspension in an internal appeal, the matter was moved to federal court.
On September 3, 2015, Judge Richard M. Berman vacated Goodell’s four-game suspension of Tom Brady, due to legal deficiencies such as inadequate notice to Brady, denial of the opportunity for Brady to examine a lead investigator, and denial of equal access to investigative files.
On April 25, 2016, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Brady’s four-game suspension for the 2016 regular season.
After losing a request for a rehearing, Brady announced on July 15 that he would not appeal further and would accept the suspension.”
That is gamesmanship rearing its ugly head. Olympic athletes cheating by taking PEDs is gamesmanship.
Ben Johnson cheating in the 1988 Seoul Olympics was gamesmanship. 1991 US Figure Skating Champion Tonya Harding practiced gamesmanship by obstructing justice by hindering prosecution following an attack on fellow skater and fierce rival, two-time world medalist Nancy Kerrigan.
In football, I notice sportsmanship in action when a player gets injured then the attacking team kicks the ball out of bounds so that the fallen player can receive medical attention.
Sportsmanship is mutual respect, sportsmanship is respecting your opponent and preparing for your opponent.
Mutual admiration doesn’t have to exist between competitors, only mutual respect. I don’t have to like you but I respect you and will prepare hard to beat you.