ChicagoTrib- The father of a football player is accused of influencing the outcome of a recent game in favor of Nazareth Academy and is at the center of a lawsuit filed by groups associated with Simeon Career Academy against the Illinois High School Association.
The Simeon Alumni Association, the Blue Machine—the Simeon football team’s booster club—and a handful of parents filed the lawsuit Nov. 16 against the IHSA in Cook County Circuit Court, less than a week after the West Chatham football team lost a Class 7A quarterfinal 34-27 to Nazareth Academy, a Catholic high school in La Grange Park. The lawsuit alleges a parent of a player from Nazareth wore his referee uniform and was involved in calls the referee crew made though he was not officiating the Nov. 10 game. The father was also seen alongside referees in an area where only officials are supposed to be. On Facebook, the father responded to criticism of him being involved in the game by saying, “I did what was needed to make sure Naz won,” according to screenshots included in the lawsuit. In another comment, the father tells someone, “I didn’t make one bad call. I made sure the best team won.” --------- I think we can all agree that helicopter parents, especially those that take a vested and vicarious interest in youth sports, are an obnoxious breed. However, as that interest typically begins and ends with low-risk bitching from the sidelines, I think I have to begrudgingly tip my hat to the type of father that would go as far as to impersonate an actual official - without any bias whatsoever, of course - to "make sure the best team won". Anyone who has ever rooted for literally anything ever knows there's not a chance that he was of sound enough mind, clear enough head, or impartial enough heart to objectively recognize good balls from bad calls, but at least he tried to keep things fair while sabotaging a playoff game in his son's favor. As a person, this dude is probably ripe for the looney bin, as Lord only knows what else the mind of someone who thought up the idea of dressing as a ref in an attempt to fix a Class 7A Quarterfinal is capable of. That said, don't tell me a grown ass man who voluntarily wore a costume that would make him a target for both the law and all the other psychotic sports' parents isn't a selfless father. If nothing else, he made the commitment at conception to do whatever it took to keep his child happy, and - short of landing an actual aircraft behind the uprights as the opponent was lining up for a game-winning field goal - I'll be damned if he didn't fulfill that promise as the most criminally devoted of helicopter dad. So, question the over-the-top actions of a nut job, but question not the paternal motives of a proud, soon-to-be-prison-bound Papa.
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