Soccer coach fired for swearing

Just a minor correction: He never said he'd fuck their mothers. Dupont said, "You wouldn't care if that team went to your house and fucked your mother."

There's a big difference there.

 

So if a kid can't take that kind of language directed at him, maybe he should try the AV club?

 

Cut and pasted from the article:

During that speech, he asked the boys, "What do I have to do to piss you guys off?" According to Tim Grass, whose son is on the team, Dupont then said, "f--- you mothers."

No you are right, he didn't say he was going to f_ck their mothers, he asked if it would piss them off if he f_cked their mothers.

That's a little bit of hair splitting but it doesn't change the point -- if you are a role model, a teacher and you are dealing with high school kids -- why is the subject of f_cking mothers even creeping into your speeches in the first place? Are you that lacking in creativity? Are you that shallow?

Again, the kid who refused to go out on the field is a wuss and if I were his teammate I'd tell him he is no longer welcome on the team, but the "adult" in this situation needs to be smarter.

 

Right. If he said, "If you guys don't get pissed off, I'm going to fuck all of your mothers tonight." Then, yeah, get his ass out of there. But I think the district was a bit extreme in this case.

 

Fired for swearing? Nah. Fired for making sexual references to players' mothers? That will cross a line every time. He didn't have to say "fuck" to get in trouble.

 

My varsity soccer coach called me a fucking pussy once. Big whup-dee-doo.

Was the coach out of line? Yes, and a one-game suspension would have probably been a good punishment. Fired? For fuck's sake ...

 

Yes.

 

I'm going to risk being called a pussy here, but here goes. If a teacher swore, people would call for his head. If the drama coach swore, people would call for his head. If the principal swore, people would call for his head. If the lunch lady swore, people would call for her head. In fact, the only position in a youth environment where swearing is acceptable is sports. If firing up your team with swearing is so great and effective, then why doesn't the English teacher get to say, "What is going to make you pissed off enough to write 500 words on 'Hamlet'? Fuck your mothers?" There are still way too many coaches who think yelling and swearing equals motivation. Again, if the math teacher taught that way, most anyone, rightly, would think he was a horrible teacher.

I know, having been a youth coach, that the issues are different because in many cases coaches come in with no training whatsoever, as opposed to full-time teachers. But that's not as much of an excuse at the high school level.

 

I agree with the boy scout. Had he said "Fuck, you guys are playing like shit" then I doubt it's a problem. You tell me I don't care if someone else fucks my mother? THAT'S a problem.

 

I'm pretty liberal when it comes to swearing. No, really.

But the coach deserves to be canned for saying that his team wouldn't care if someone boffed their mothers. There's always another and better way to say that they don't care.

 

I don't think he was fired for swearing. He was fired for a "vulgar comment" according to the story. I don't think 'fucked' was the problem. I think it was the 'your mothers' afterward.

I think the thread title, and the story's headline, missed the point.

 

I agree. I don't think people had a problem that he cursed. It's that he made it personal.