During the Dolphins/Jets game this past Sunday, video footage emerged of the Jets Strength and Conditioning coach, Sal Alosi, tripping a Dolphins player during the game. The coach has since been suspended and fined. Everyone, including Alosi, has acknowledged how wrong this act was.
Now, it seems as if Alosi instructed players on the Jets sideline to help him form a “wall” prior to the trip taking place. The purpose of the “wall” was to interfere with the Dolphins player running down the sideline. Listen to what former Dolphin player, Zach Thomas, has to say about the incident:
“They had to be ordered to stand there because they’re foot to foot,” Thomas said Tuesday on Miami radio station WQAM. “There’s four of them, side to side — five of them, I mean — on the edge of the coaches’ zone. They’re only out there to restrict the space of the gunner.
“But there’s more to it because I’m telling you, the only thing [Alosi] did wrong was intentionally put that knee out there. If he just stood there, there would never have been a problem, even if the guy got tripped. But there’s more to this. He was ordered to stand there. No one is foot to foot on the sideline in the coaches’ box.”
What I find interesting about this story, other than the oddity of it, is that most seem to agree that Alosi would have done nothing wrong had he not tripped the player. The morality of this situation, for most, rests solely on the tripping and not the act of forming the “wall” of players. I highly doubt the Jets would have suspended Alosi or even disciplined him for forming the wall.
And this is the worldview and philosophy most in the sporting world follow: win at all costs. Most will try to abide by the rules but only by the letter of the law–not by the spirit. Forming a “wall” and standing behind the white line without budging technically would have been “legal.” Not wrong according to the letter of the law.
It’s good for us in sports ministry to understand the worldview and philosophies those in the secular world follow so we can understand what we are redeeming sports from.
