Don't Make The Team? Sue 'Em.

When I was a kid I was cut from by school softball team.  The coach told all of us.."on a ground ball, down on one knee to block it incase you miss it.  If you don't do it my way you don't make the team".  First day of practice, figuring the one knee thing was for sissies,  I put the gloved between my legs and the ball found my 5 hole.  End of practice, I was cut.

I was also cut from a school soccer team.  I figured I was a slam dunk to make it.  I never told my dad I didn't cut the cut.  Maybe I  should have.  2 sets of  parents are suing The Greater Toronto Hockey League after their kids were bounced from a midget junior A team back in April.  One of the parents claims that by being cut it caused "irreprable psychological damage"  to the kids self esteem.  It also charges that the conduct of the defendants destroyed the dignity of the boy who gave the team nothing but his best efforts.

Now, I'm not going to argue that I gave my softball coach my best effort.  He said do it his way.  I did it my way.  He was right,  I desrved to be turffed.  But dammit I gave my best effort to make that soccer team and they cut me.  Was I psychologically scarred?  Yea, for a couple of hours,  Did the episode destroy my dignity?  Well I went to all the home games to cheer on my buddies.   'Course it wasn't too many years later I came to grips with the fact that I could talk about sports a lot better than I could play them. 

Being cut can have a big impact on a kid.  Michael Jordan was cut from his highschool baskietball team.  Did it effect him?  Sure it did.  He didn't just make himself better he made himself the best ever.   Remember Steve Thomas.  He played for the Maple Leafs a few years back. He was never drafted by a pro team.  He ended up playing 20 years in the pros.

Neither one of them threatened law suits.  Neither one them complained about losing their dignity.  You want to talk about losing dignity.  There was a picture in the papers from the NHL draft last weekend. The kid is sitting in the stands in L-A with his family.  The draft is over.  He has his head burried in his hands.  He wasn't taken.  His dreams were shattered  There was no talk of law suits. 

Auto workers, workers in any industry, losing their jobs.  That's psychological damage, emotional distress and lost dignity and it's worth a hell of a lot more than the 25 thousand dollars in damages the parents are looking for because their kids weren't the puck prodigies they thought they were. 

I lose my dignity when I watch Jerry Springer.  Sue him!  David Spade moves distress me.  Sue him!  God if I had 25 grand for every woman who caused me psychological damage when they told me to take a hike I would be independantly wealthy.  Did I lose my dignity? Yes.  Did I sue?  No.  Did I stop trying?  I did not.   And that's the point. That's what Steve Thomas and Michael Jordan did.  They went home, shook it off, reloaded and made themselve better.

That's the lesson these kids should be learning.  Maybe they're not good enough.  Maybe hockey isn't their future.  That's okay.  They'll get over it.  They'll move on.  But you start teaching kids that every time they're rejected  by the love of their life, every time the boss makes them feel like crap because they screwed up, every time they forget to super size your fries, you sue, what kind of problems are you sending out into the real world? 

Psychological damage?  Emotional distress?  Destruction of dignity?   You think that's how the kids feel or is it how the parents feel?