The point I was making about the Super Bowl call, was once it was called taunting, then everything that followed was in order. The point of contention for most observers of the play was, did the action that occured on the field count as taunting. Similar actions by numerous players in other games did not get flagged and that was shown in a number of film clips of those games. (I understand that in this case the player in question had some prior history so perhaps the officials were giving no slack to that particular player.) However, how many times have you seen a basketball player lift his or her arms in celebration after sinking a long shot in a game. ALL THE TIME!. How is that any different in spirit. Its not. If those players point at their opponent and "taunt" them, then sure. Foul!. Or after a goal, hockey players raising their sticks to celebrate. (I know the MIAA does not necessarily have the NCAA football rules in place for all sports, but the idea is the same.) I understand this a pretty severe case, but where does the line get drawn? Does a single voice in the crowd yelling out "Hey Goalie you suck!" constitute a violation of 48.1 as listed above?? What about 3 people yelling in unison??? What if a spectator tosses a water bottle onto the ice? During a 2 on 1 breakaway that the goalie stops? Does the goalie get penalized and have to stop it again with a replay? (The rinks I frequent tend to have glass to ceiling netting along the specator sides making that hard to do...) So punishing the team or players for actions of spectators is a slippery slope. Having the full weight of the MIAA being willing to support charges of disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace or some such legal charge in cases like this might be a better course of action. Just like at Fenway, run on the field and you face some legal charges. Many times you can make them go away with fine, but sometimes those charges are more severe. A record might dissuade some over enthusiastic supporters from crossing that line. I know most games like this have to have a detail cop on hand, so they should already be in place to handle the arrest or citation.
Posted by PetefromNorthofBoston
Posted by PetefromNorthofBoston
You make some really valid arguments here. It is a tuff call. Its easier to sit on this side and judge it. And I hear you about how setting presidence may not be a good idea, but really, replaying the game, other than costing $$$$, would be the right thing to do. I think we all knew they wouldn't do it. I hope the next team playing W/L, puts 15 goals in the net, cleanly with talent, no chippy stuff just stuff the puck. Maybe they were the better team against Medway but I dont think this year we will ever really be 100% sure. I just don't want them to advance without confidence they deserve to be there.
It seems that the MIAA's statement using the Officials Rule during the game should not have applied here. What the MIAA is saying is the ref, if he found reason, should have called the game then and there and given the win to Medway. I think if this were to happen again, you would probably see that call made, but without being sure there would be no way an official would have made that call in that game. They probably didn't even know they could call that at that time, they figured throw him out and we're done. Didn't bank on 2 more goals in a matter of a minute to turn the game into a loss for Medway.
And really, if someone threw a water bottle during a scoring opportunity and it caused someone to fall, then yes, the fair/right thing to do was to make the goalie make another stop that would have been against a valid shot, and if it goes in it was on a valid shot. But that would be a judgment call on that day, just as this was a judgement call today on an incident that should never have happened. Just this circumstance alone has caused presidence to be set.
The problems with the MIAA are deep. The football game, and now this, are starting to show the holes in such a body. They make up rules, then don't follow them, or they have rules they can use in any situation to make the situation fit their needs. In this case, they didn't even look at the taunting rule, which is really the place to look, considering it "governs" the stands too, they made that rule to include specatators but now that there is a "big controversy" they use some rule about its the refs call. Anything but actually have a hearing including all parties and making a valid decision with valid points (or maybe they did???)
If I was a parent for Medway I would be livid. After a long season and lots of $$ spent by parents, its sad to have lost in such a way. And where are the morals of the W/L team, and the coach, and the AD. They have not taken any responsibility for this, its sad. I'm hoping I go home tonight and watch the news and see a bunch of W/L parents sticking together saying it was wrong and we are sorry it happened, and shaking the hands of the Medway parents. Bet that just wont happen, as they seem to think they still deserve this. All that anyone ever wants today is accountability and an apology. The MIAA by making a NO CALL on this has set the stage for other incidents between W/L and whomever they play in the future as this will always be on players/parents minds.
We will see what happens if by some fluke they get to the finals... that will really be a good one for the MIAA to deal with. My applogies for another long post, to anyone that is thinking shut up.. I will....
