Provocation No Excuse for Assault on Official

The punching of the referee during the Beverly Hills-Centennial football game is regrettable. Without prejudice to who said what on the field, the remarks of Centennial Coach Omar Bradley after the game are highly inflammatory. Calling someone a bad name, he said, “instills rage. And when the kids act on that rage, they’re called down as a criminal.”

Physical assault is a criminal act. It is almost invariably associated with rage. Coach Bradley is encouraging his players, and other youths, to deny the difference between verbal and physical behavior. The ideal that if someone is provoked to rage, violence is justified, is destructive to all concerned and has wider social implications that are also destructive.

Football is a game of violence, controlled by rules. The referees are symbols and enforcers of the rules. An assault by a fully padded and helmeted man on an unprotected man is an assault on the whole game of football, not only criminal but shameful, whatever the provocation might have been.

ALLAN COMPTON

Los Angeles