Anger Management

Joe had his fist real fistfight this past week and I'm still fuming about the situation. He was at Scouts and after his den meeting he went outside to play with a few of his friends and came home with a bloody nose and marks of his face that were obviously made with someones fist. The kid who attacked him is much larger than Joe and has a serious issue with anger. He plays for the basketball team that I help to coach and having observed him for several weeks it is clear he gets angry easy and has a vicious temper. While I'm normally in the club that says it is better for the adults to stay out of these things and let the kids sort the issues, I'm having a real problem remaining neutral. Probably because I know the kid's Dad and I would have expected some level of dialogue about the situation. Instead, he basically avoided the issue and did very little to impress upon his son the importance of not beating the crap out of other kids just because he's having a bad moment. It's also kind of sad since Joe was one of this kid's very few friends.....I say was because Joe has decided to take a serious break from the kid and not play with him until at least February, which hopefully will extend further into the year.

To his credit Joe tried to avoid the fight initially, but stood up for himself and by all accounts defended himself very well given he was fighting someone much larger. Why is it that we always remember our first real fight? Mine was with a kid named Joe Butler, whose Father was a boxer in the military and his Dad had taught him how to box quite well. He hit me square on the nose in the first 30 seconds and then while my eyes were watering he beat the living hell out of me. It was embarrassing and painful and I vowed that day that I would learn how to fight properly, which helps to explain my entry into the Marines a few years later.

I watched the Nuggets/Knicks brawl on TV and I think Stern was a tad lenient given the circumstances, especially with the coaches who both need a swift kick in the rear. Joe and I go to see the Hawks pretty regularly and it is bad enough with Josh Smith using the "F" word for all to hear whenever he gets upset, but I sure as hell don't want Joe to see these guys punching each other.........hell, whatever happened to the concept of professional athletes acting as role models for our kids? We pay them millions of dollars and the best we can expect is for them to say "F It" whenever things don't go their way............

Anger is a bad thing and we all need to learn to take a breath, to walk away, to count to ten as my Mom used to tell me when I was a kid......I'm proud of Joe for having defended himself, but I'm sorry his first pugilistic affair had to be with a so called friend............it's confusing when someone turns on you. I suppose it is a good life lesson in some respects, but tough when you are only ten.