Should kids pay for adults' bad behavior on and off the field?

CNN
CNN

There isn't a parent whose kids have played sports who hasn't experienced a from-the-bleacher's scene of (typically) testerone-amped coaches engaging in a screaming match with each other or a ref. We shake our heads, talk to our kids afterward if we think lines were crossed. But when the kids on the field or court are pint-sized when this happens, it makes the whole head-shaking ordeal even more disturbing. We leave wondering: What kind of role models have we subjected our kids to in the name of teamwork?

And, when one of these outbursts turns physical and is caught on video, well, you get this scene in Pearland, Texas, at a Pee Wee league game between mostly 11-year-olds. (Click on "Pee Wee league brawl caught on tape" on the right.) According to CNN, it looks like two younger players skirmished after a tackle, one coach went out on the field to break them up, and the whole thing devolved into this mess of adult and kid bodies pushing, pulling, yelling. At one point, one coach blindsides another, hitting him on the back of the head and knocking him to the ground. Some of the kid team members from the Patriots and the Hurricanes are also seen trying to break up the adults' brawl.

The upshot: The kids are ending up paying for the adults' bad behavior on and off the field. The league they play for has determined the Patriots and the Hurricanes cannot play in the playoffs. Maybe the coaches' punishment is that most parents will not want them to coach their kids ever again.

"I can't believe the coaches actually did this in front of us because it sets such a bad example for us," one wise young player says on camera.

And, of course, he's right.

Whenever I see a coach get too emotionally and verbally charged up over the young kids' game they are coaching, it's hard to not think: If it is that important to you, why don't you go play your own game in an adult league where you have to run up and down a field or court and take the physical pushing and shoving of other players? Then, maybe, you'll think twice about getting into a shouting, and definitely a shoving, match with other adults in front of kids who are pouring their hearts and sweat out on the playing field. They deserve better.

Have you seen similar adult blowups on the sidelines of your kids' games?