Nation,
CEUUC 2009 TD Nick Gifford gives a solid interview for the London Free Press.
In particular, I liked his effort to explain spirit of the game to the reporter. It's not easy to explain it to someone with no grasp of the game with a mic in your face.
In light of some of the focus this issue/question gets in all media interviews this year, I have to ask if CUPA should develop some talking points regarding this question and others we face from main media and outside observers.
So, what should that definition be?
At No Borders, the "professional" announcer really couldn't get over/accept the non referee aspect. His tone suggested that no refs= Anarchy. In retrospect, I would have liked (hindsight, so clear and easy) for one of the announcers to simply explain how it does make sense- When you have someone policing both teams, the strategy becomes "let's cheat as much as we get away with". Under spirit of the game, I play by the rules because if I don't, you won't either. We police ourselves for mutually beneficial reasons.
It's a simple question and answer, but if we can work as a sport to better explain this unique part of our game, we can easily market spirit of the game to be reported and viewed as a positive uniqueness, rather than used to categorize us as fringe.
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Both the UPA and WFDF rules explain the underpinnings of SotG and the responsibility for fair play. I point to those when in need of definitions.
When dealing with someone who appears genuinely confused by the notion of self-officiation, I usually just jog their memories to remind them of how often they've probably self-officiated themselves in any number of games or sports. It's so intuitive, especially in casual competition, that they've likely never given it further thought.
The general truth is that in most games and sports (and life), we rarely have third parties watching our every move.
Nick and the LUC community deserves a big thank you for hosting such a great tournament with literally last minute adds and drops. From the hotel deals, the party, the food and the quality of the fields, they've really set the bar high for future tournaments.
I commonly refer to SotG as Sportsmanship. To play with good SotG is to play with good sportsmanshhip. A benefit is that if one is breaking the rules, since the game is self refereed anyone can call an infraction. The gray area that we all know about is when something is on the line people will make false calls to give them a bit of an upper hand.
This:
http://www.the-huddle.org/issues/24/what-goes-through-your-head/
Of all the articles on this month's Huddle, BVH's is the only one that really gets it.
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