Apparently the team doesn’t submit their team nickname, just the names of the kids and coach. While I can believe there are parents who don’t attend games and have kids who do their own laundry who hadn’t seen the uniforms I can’t believe that’s true of the entire team’s parents. IOW, the idea that no one-opposing coaches, refs. or parents-were aware of the team name and the racial slurs beggars belief. The one beginning with C could be a last name but the NG one could be nothing but a very bad racially tinged “joke.”
I don’t think it’s been blown out of proportion at all - this guy, the team parents who were involved, the less than honorable print shop staff or owner that agreed to manufacture the shirts, the refs, the parents and fans of players on other teams that stood by and said nothing during three games, the league officials who approved the team name… the list goes on and on of people who were insensitive at best and real racist and sexually immature. The coach, players and other parents directly involved in this by creating the fake names should be banned from the league and the school district sports activities for a very long time.
And then there is this from an online report:
The “unsportsmanlike” and overly “physical” style of play exhibited by players in some ways overshadowed the jersey names at the time, too, DiTullio said.Most of the 10 players on each of the two teams were probably juniors or seniors, he said. The recreation league is meant to be about having fun with friends rather than being a competitive score-keeping exercise, DiTullio said.
A Milford player’s nose was bloodied and another got a scratch on his face, DiTullio said. A Milford player who sometimes falls and “isn’t the best player” was taunted with verbal insults from Kings on the court and a group of five teens in the stands.
“During the game, it became very physical,” he said. “The sportsmanship was very terrible.”
DiTullio said he focused on calming his players during and after the game.
FWIW, in the basketball league that I used to run, the jerseys were reversible. The same thing was written on each side but one was white and one was color.
If this was my league, the children who did this “joke” (and they are old enough to know better), the parents, and the coaches would all be banned for life. The coaches and refs who say this and who said nothing to me would have been reprimanded as well.
http://www.cpybl.com/team-schedule indicates that Kings Gill VB-R (official team name according to the article listed in #16) completed three games on 12/03, 12/10, and 12/17. The article says that an opposing coach noticed the jerseys during the 12/17 game (the opposing coach took a photo which is included in the article). The 01/07 game was the one where they were noticed by enough people for the league to cancel that team’s season.
Honestly, this is one of those things that seems like it must have been from The Onion.
Mind-boggling. What is wrong with people?
The team nickname is typical adolescent male humor, but it should have been shut down by the coach. The other stuff is what stuns me. Who on earth would look through this order and approve it?
Wondering from a legal perspective if the company that printed the jerseys would have had the ability to refuse the order? Thinking how this overlaps with the various positions on the bakery refusing the wedding cake for the same sex couple. Very different issues but some commonality as well.
Interesting thought, @HarvestMoon1. I hope our laws permit someone from being required to print discriminatory things.
I also wonder whether or not the orders are even seen by those who make them. Isn’t most of it just automated? Send in the order, it’s printed and shipped?
(Genuinely asking. Never had to think about it before today…)
IMO, the team would not have had any constitutional grounds for a lawsuit - freedom of speech does not apply in this situation. In the bakery case, it was one’s right to freely exercise their religious beliefs versus discrimination of customers by a place of public accommodations.
If I were the commissioner, I’d allow the tasteless team name-- there are tasteless names in the adult leagues my son plays in. But the jerseys with the racial names? Never.
A lot of custom printing of jerseys and other clothing is still done by smaller shops where designs would be seen by human employees.
But this wasn’t an adult league; it was a youth recreation league (grades 7-12). I can understand how there would be far more oversight/discretion to edit team names in a youth league dedicated to children’s sports.
“IMO, the team would not have had any constitutional grounds for a lawsuit - freedom of speech does not apply in this situation. In the bakery case, it was one’s right to freely exercise their religious beliefs versus discrimination of customers by a place of public accommodations”
Freedom of speech doesn’t apply because it was a private league that merely rented from the schools. And there is no law that says you must provide service to people no matter what they say. There are laws that say if you provide service to the public you must provide service to people no matter what their race religion or sexual orientation is. That’s what the bakers lawsuit is all about.
That was my general understanding but here is a recent Kentucky Appeals Ct. decision ruling in favor of a T Shirt company that refused to print shirts for a gay pride festival. This was the courts reasoning:
Not sure I am following what the judge is saying there.
I think this is a better article:
http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article150169482.html
The judge is saying that the ordinance did not apply to the business’ conduct:
I think printing companies do look at what they print. I had to do t-shirts for a youth event based on a pop culture theme and they reviewed and tweaked it based on copyright issues. This was with an pretty big online company.
I’d like to defend the ‘parents’ you all think should have stopped this before the shirts were even printed. I’ve signed my kids up for teams, paid the fees, and never seen the shirts until it was on my child and she was on the field/court. Often they are handed out at the first or second games. Not every parent attends a rec league basketball game for 16 year old boys. Now would I have thrown a fit once I figured it out? Yes.
This is ridiculous, but just proof that 25 year olds are in charge of some things (gaming, cartoons, and now youth basketball, and according to my uncle all parking on Martha’s Vineyard) and we have no way of stopping them. So what happened here? ‘Someone’ decided to do this little joke, ‘no one’ stopped him, and now ‘everyone’ on the team loses. This wasn’t a parent, it was someone who organized the team and thought it was really funny. The 15-16 year old boys also thought it was funny so didn’t say anything to their parents and put on the shirts. Hehehe (Mtv cartoon laugh). The uniform company (probably online) just filled the order. It’s also possible the guys on the team printed the team name and individual names themselves. You can get heat pressed sheets and just print them and iron on. We do this for the swim team sweats and even the crest on school uniforms.
News article says that the first 3 games were on their home court. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/cincinnati/2018/01/09/kings-mills-parents-do-better-and-do-not-sweep-racist-jerseys-under-rug-outraged-over-racist-sexist/1017122001/
Kerry McKiernan the school board member who just resigned and whose son was on the team said that “no one on the team mean to hurt anyone.” But he would not comment on why the jerseys said what they did or why he did not address the issue earlier. He then went on to defend his own son saying he was a “beautiful, kind, loving kid who likes everyone.” Finished off his statement by saying the situation “breaks my christian heart.”
I don’t know about anyone else but lately I am just sick and tired of being expected to accept some lame justification for people’s awful behavior. Maybe his son is kind and loving to some people but it doesn’t in any way diminish the fact he decided to wear that jersey. Just own it.
Have you ever known any parent to not say “He’s a GOOD kid!” even as that kid is bullying (“It was just teasing”), hitting (“Goofing around”), stealing (“He’s never done this before!”)?