The First Red Card

My friend, Bob Ramsey, has discovered his first gray hair.

On Wednesday, my son received his first red card in a soccer match between South Pasadena and Monrovia. I arrived at the game too late, and he had already been ejected. As I asked some of the spectators what happened, they all shrugged. The referee indicated that Mark and the opposing player were swinging, or about to swing, at each other. No one saw the swing, and Mark swears he did not swing at the other player.

There are seven "sending-off" offences in soccer.

1) Guilty is serious foul play
2) Guilty of violent conduct
3) Spits at an opponent, or any other person
4) denies the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball
5) denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the players goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick
6) uses offensive or insulting or abusive language and/or gestures
7) receives a second caution in the same match

Well, it was pretty clear to me that Mark was not guilty of 3-7. I suppose in the referee's opinion, there was serious foul play, or violent conduct. Since no one saw any violent conduct, a caution (yellow) may have been warranted, if the referee saw things perhaps escalating to that. But one cannot judge what might have happened, only what did happen. According to all I spoke to, nothing worthy of a red card was done, by either Mark or the other player.

My son, of course, is heartbroken. He prides himself on being a good, solid, fair player. He has only gotten two yellow cards in ten years of playing soccer, and he won the sportsmanship award last year for his gentlemanly play. This feels to him like being arrested for a crime he did not commit.

To make matters worse, by CIF rules, he must sit out the next game (today), against La Canada, the best team in the league. And with Mark being the team's best defender, he will be missed. He feels he has let his team down. His teammates are so notorious for getting yellow and red cards, that I told him that perhaps now he will really fit into the team. Though I hope he continues NOT to fit into a team like that!

Sometimes, we will be unfairly punished, I suppose. We can learn from our mistakes, but cannot allow them to hinder us in our pursuits. So goes the fatherly advice. Perhaps I should take some of my own advice.