National Association of Sports Officials Discusses Referee’s Death
A referee died in Salt Lake City after being punched in the head by a soccer player angry at a yellow card. An official from the National Association of Sports Officials tries to make sense of it.
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Sports can bring out the absolute best in people—and the absolute worst. On May 3, the world was issued another cautionary tale of the latter in the death of Ricardo Portillo.
His yellow card, which might have been the very last thing in his consciousness, is a yellow card for the rest of us in officiating.
Portillo, a 46-year-old referee, spent a week in a coma and died Saturday after being punched in the head by a 17-year-old soccer player (opens in a new tab) who was angry that the official had issued him a yellow card in a game held in Salt Lake City.
“His yellow card, which might have been the very last thing in his consciousness, is a yellow card for the rest of us in officiating,” Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials, told USA Today. (opens in a new tab) “We need to be reminded that some serious stuff can take place out there.”
Mano told The New York Times (opens in a new tab) that since NASO was founded in 1980, sports officials have faced increasingly dangerous conditions, which has led to more insurance specifically against assault. The association is lobbying to make the assault on a sports official more than a misdemeanor, USA Today reported.
“It wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” Mano told The Times. “But now it’s part and parcel of what we do, and not a week goes by where we don’t get at least two or three calls with reports of officials being assaulted.”
Mano and others blame a lack of sportsmanship for the rise in violence against referees and other sports officials. “Part of this isn’t a sport problem, part of it is a societal problem,” said Dan Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State, according to an Associated Press report (opens in a new tab). “You watch TV, and the trash-talking that’s accepted. If you’re famous, you’re almost supposed to get into trouble. Why is everyone infatuated with Lindsay Lohan when she seems like a spoiled brat?”
Authorities in Salt Lake City are deciding whether to file criminal charges (opens in a new tab)against the teenage soccer player, who has not been identified because he’s a minor.
(iStockphoto/Thinkstock)
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