Sideline Rage: Not Just for Lunatics

According to a Washington Post article, a sports psychology study, which analyzed hundreds of soccer moms and dads just after watching their child’s match, found that 52.9% of the parents "reported getting angry during the course of the game."

This is of no real surprise. Rage-filled, sideline tirades have become something of a cliché in our society. So much so that the shock of hearing about a father slugging an official or an opposing dad has lost some of its wow factor. What remains is something akin to tragic comedy and a feeling of "I would never do that."

But, as the article reports, THOSE parents (Tempestuous, Harried, Overwrought, Self-absorbed and Emotional) are most often completely normal and sane. They can even admit, while filling out the study's questionnaire, that their "venting" on the field was "inappropriate" behavior.

The question then is this: Why does a seemingly rational person do something as embarrassing, irrational, and counterproductive as threaten, scream at, and harass officials, other parents, and even other kids at a children’s sporting event.

The answer, it seems, is at least two-fold.

First, we live in a society that promotes acting like the crazed fan. The crazier the better. Going to a Vikings’ game? Don’t hesitate to paint your face purple and yellow and wear funny horns on your head.

Second, according to the study: moms and dads who act like lunatics at games "tended to be both control freaks and people who measured their own worth by criteria established by others."

"Those parents that saw their children and their children's performance as direct extensions of their own egos were the ones most susceptible [to sideline rage]," said Jay Goldstein, the study’s author. "These people feel they need to keep up with the Joneses: If my neighbor's child is playing for the Bethesda soccer team, my child needs to play for that team, too. They fear they are going to be left behind."

--Alex Crevar