Upon Further Review…

Maybe it’s the result of watching too much football, but I’ve noticed a funny similarity between kids and football players recently.

You can’t watch a televised football game, pro or college (or is that the same thing now?) without seeing this similarity acted out at least a couple times. It goes like this. There will be a long pass downfield and the defender will grab the jersey of the receiver or in someway interfere with his ability to fairly catch the pass. The referee will throw a flag and call a penalty for pass interference. Then, the camera will cut to the defender gesticulating in disbelief and pleading he did nothing, NOTHING and how could they be calling a penalty on him?

We’ve had instant replay in televised football games for a solid 25 years. Half the time, while the defender is pleading his innocence, there’s a super-size image of him being displayed on the stadium jumbotron clearly interfering or committing the penalty. You know we can see you, right?

But, even without the possibility of instant replay, this happens in our house all the time. I’ll be watching as the boys are playing or otherwise coexisting. A boy will shove his brother down. The shoved brother will start wailing. The pusher looks over at me with hands out and an incredulous face —- what? I didn’t do anything, ANYTHING and why are you looking at me?

I know I witnessed the unnecessary roughness. The boy knows I saw it too. And yet, caught red handed or not, he will protest the call in disbelief. And just like the football players, this isn’t a one-time thing. More often than not, the immediate response of whoever is getting penalized (football player or boy) is to deny it and protest his innocence.

It all seems so incredibly irrational, ridiculous, and yet if we’re honest, particularly human.

It makes me think of behavioral economics and the various studies that have exposed how man’s assumed rationality is an assumption not always based on facts.

Think of the coach arguing a call after it can’t be overturned. Think of the baseball manager getting in an umpire’s face to protest a ruling that’s already been made. This sort of defying of the inevitable, especially when the exercise in futility comes with a large human-shaped blind spot in the mirror, is incredibly common and all too relatable.  

So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised about this in kids. Kids are little humans after all. In one sense their irrational arguing is more reasonable as they don’t have the same benefit from life experience that adults do.

But what about those professionals crying foul despite the instant replay evidence showing they committed one? I guess that’s why they say sports are for kids.