Violence in sport is akin to the Coliseum

“It is time a precedent was set and that the casual, nasty violence undermining our national games was stamped out”.

Your editorial (Irish Examiner, June 23) on cheating, drug abuse and violence in sports is timely and sadly, true. Few people are fooled that sport is about healthy, communal participation, fairness or noble endeavour.

The American football coach Red Sanders’ adage that ‘winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing’ is the predominant mantra. And how the winning comes about doesn’t matter it seems.

The enthusiastic cultivation of ‘dirty play’, by coaches, (even parents), is nothing short of a scandal.

There are many issues in the national game, but as your editorial identifies, “casual and frequent onfield violence is the most pressing.”

From school competitions upwards, ultra-rough play, as a supposed ‘manly’ feature of the games, is championed.

Even at this level, the abuse showered on referees is shocking and out of order.

What kind of example does that set for the young ‘impresssionables’?

Just recently, a retired Garda in the midlands gave up refereeing because of the relentless abuse he was receiving.

Some of the videoed scenes of mayhem on the field of play these days owe more to the ‘coliseum’ than to the local parish-field.

Children deserve a more morally mature exhibition of ‘personhood’.

Jim Cosgrove

Chapel Street

Lismore

Co.Waterford