This past weekend in football may be best remembered for “flag planting,” the latest way to puff out your chest after a big victory. Flag planting is when a visiting team beats the home team, and in an act of emotion they stake their school flag on the 50 yard line. While flag planting isn’t new, this past weekend the act led to a number of on-field brawls, including Michigan-Ohio State, Florida-Florida State, and North Carolina-North Carolina State. I recently wrote about the ways in which athletes celebrate today (even on ordinary plays), and flag planting is yet another behavior that challenges sportsmanship and decency. Is taunting a behavior we want to see more of, or is this a tipping point where we re-evaluate appropriate victory celebrations? While youth sport coaches generally prioritize sportsmanship and guard against taunting, that kind of messaging becomes blurry when kids see college and pro athletes not engaging in healthy sportsmanship. Should athletes reign in things like flag planting, or should sportsmanship be set aside so that athletes from the winning team can rub it in the faces of the losers?
Examining sportsmanship today
As I recently discussed, previous generations of athletes were generally modest when it came to big plays and team wins. Youth sport coaches rarely had to have discussions around taunting, belittling the other team, or vandalizing property. Today, however, kids regularly see off color posts online, and even more questionable actions during games (including, but not limited to, flag planting). Whether it’s standing at home plate and staring at your home run, or running a flag out to the opponent’s 50 yard line after a win, the message to kids is to both attract attention to yourself whenever possible, and stick it in the opponent’s face to get that last little taunt before leaving town.
The reality is kids don’t play better when they do those kinds of things, but poor sportsmanship can lead to bigger problems by means of suspensions, fines, and simply turning off fans who expect a little better. Taunting and poor sportsmanship are behaviors that hurt, not help, a student athlete’s overall development — and while it is incumbent upon youth sport coaches to models prosocial behaviors, it becomes difficult to do so with so many college and pro teams playing loose with sportsmanship.
Healthy sport competition relies on fair and safe play, and appropriate sportsmanship amongst competitors. Bat flips and flag plants used to be outliers, behaviors that were only rarely seen in sports. Today, it is almost expected that players flip their bats after timely home runs, and that visiting teams who win big games on the road plant their flag in the field. We should take note of the fights that happened on various football fields this past weekend after flags were planted, and how police had to use pepper spray to calm things down. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries reported, but we can only wonder what tragedies await the next time a flag is planted in a hostile opposing team environment? For example, with stadiums that seat over 100,000 fans what would happen if they were to rush onto the field and begin fighting with the players? Would police be forced to use more than pepper spray, and if so, what kinds of things might follow when a real riot ensues?
Final thoughts
While it is fun for fans of the winning team to see their team stare at home runs, or ram a flag in the 50 yard line after a big win, when we widen the scope and look at the bigger picture relating to potential dangers and what these behaviors model for kids, things can quickly look different. What will happen in the future when police are unable to control the on-field melee after a flag plant? What will be the impact on kids years from now when they draw attention to themselves for routine plays, rather than simply keep their ego in check and play for the team? If professional and collegiate sports do not take on these questions in the very near future, behaviors will likely become even more outlandish — and potentially even more dangerous.
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