Sportsmanship

Not that anyone in the sport of football was particularly happy about LeGarrette Blount throwing the sucker punch seen 'round YouTube. But from the high school ranks to the NFL, coaches could take one comforting thought: At least it wasn't one of my players. And in the days since Blount clocked an opponent and was suspended for the season, his mistake has been transformed into a teachable moment, an example to scare other athletes straight. "It was a gift for all of us to see the bad end of things," said USC Coach Pete Carroll, who addressed his team about keeping its cool.

Lakers center Dwight Howard was "hacked" by Orlando Magic players over and over Tuesday night, and he made them pay by making 16 of 20 free throws when intentionally fouled. Still, it might have seemed like a good strategy for the Magic going in, seeing that Howard was averaging just 47.8% from the foul line until that point. Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss whether the "Hack-a-Howard" play, while legal, should be considered unsportsmanlike. Feel free to join the discussion by leaving a comment of your own. Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times Of course not. Intentionally fouling Dwight Howard is no different from trying to post up Roy Hibbert on Nate Robinson or switching to a 3-2 zone against a team with good interior players but poor outside shooters; it's all about exploiting a team's weaknesses.

Whether you are running in a race, communicating in cyberspace or talking to someone face to face, good manners can help you succeed. In this world of many cultures and changing circumstances, knowing the appropriate rules of behavior, or "etiquette," can help you avoid misunderstandings as well as make yours and others' lives more pleasant.

UCLA and USC had retreated to neutral corners. The Bruins came out swinging. The Trojans came out with a letter. UCLA put an end to a tradition — the pregame ritual of the USC drum major stabbing the turf with a sword — then went wild at its own annual event. A bonfire rally at UCLA Thursday night brought out some of the rivalry's rancor. "We hate those dudes across town," senior fullback David Allen told the crowd. "We're taking it back this year. " Meanwhile, across town, there was displeasure with UCLA not allowing the drum major to stab the field.

In response to "When Handshake Is Setback to Sportsmanship," March 25: The Marmonte School District's decision to forbid post-game handshakes reflects much more than a school problem in east Ventura County. It goes to the core of the struggle for values in our nation. Few would condone sports violence, on or off the field. Many of us would like to fix the responsibility--the blame--for violence on someone who was there--the players, the coaches, the spectators--all pulling for a victory.

My family and I recently moved back to the Thousand Oaks area after being out of the country for five years. I was born and raised in Thousand Oaks and was looking forward to coming back to this community. My two boys spent this past baseball season playing in Thousand Oaks Little League. I had spent many seasons at those fields while growing up and watching my brothers play for that same league. What I witnessed this past season was unlike anything I remember from when my brothers played.

I was disappointed to read that Robert Foster, convicted of assaulting an umpire, will not admit his serious error and take full responsibility for his action. The judge required him to write a 1,000-word essay on sportsmanship. Instead, he lays the blame for his crime on the umpire's attitude and wrongfully advises us never to question an umpire's call. Should an umpire's call be questioned? Yes, but not his genealogy. The umpire is usually correct, but not always. The routine calls are elementary, and most of the close ones are obvious--then there's the difficult calls.

In the second quarter, with the score Good Guys, a.k.a. USC Trojans, 14, Bad Guys, a.k.a. Michigan Wolverines, 3, I saw something I've never seen in 30 years of Rose Bowls. And hope I never do again. As the Michigan marching band, all 300-strong or whatever it was, came streaming to the staging area in front of the SC stands for their preparation for the halftime show, the student body in the seats rose to pelt the musicians with plastic cushions. I couldn't believe these were sane adults.

The challenge facing high school administrators in the 1990s and beyond is to create an understanding of sportsmanship in our schools, said Jack Roberts, keynote speaker at the 11th annual Athletic Directors' Symposium Wednesday at the Sequoia Athletic Club. About 500 high school administrators from the Southern Section gathered to hear Roberts, executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Assn.

It would go down as perhaps the greatest act of sportsmanship in college football history, but Lou Conti and his Cornell teammates wanted no part of it. Seventy years ago this month, the Big Red scored a last-second touchdown to secure a controversial 7-3 victory over Dartmouth, extending its winning streak to 19 games and keeping alive its dream of winning a national championship. But then the muckety-mucks decided to give it away. Here's why: A review of game films revealed that, because of an officiating error, Cornell was mistakenly awarded an extra play, scoring its winning points on fifth down.

In the name of good sportsmanship, what's going on around here? I don't know the gladiator or whatever USC calls the brute with the sword, but I believe he's a college kid. And if you're a college kid like every other college kid and someone tells you not to do something, what do you do? You do it. If there is one thing we've always been able to count on from our younger generation it's defiance. The whole college experience is pretty much built on it: protests, sit-ins, marches or whatever.

WASHINGTON - Arnie's Army, at least the congressional battalion, turned out at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday for presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to golfing legend Arnold Palmer. "I'm particularly proud of anything that the House and Senate agree on," Palmer, 83, joked to a crowd that included a number of golfing lawmakers. In 2009, Congress approved -- and President Obama signed -- legislation by Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), an avid golfer, awarding Congress' highest civilian honor to Palmer.  At the presentation Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)

Raul Gonzalez showed class and Gennaro Gattuso showed none. That, in 10 words or less, was the story of Tuesday's two European Champions League round-of-16 soccer games played in Spain and Italy, respectively. Tottenham Hotspur, ignoring as best it could the outrageous and disgraceful behavior of AC Milan and Italian national team midfielder Gattuso, defeated the seven-time European champions, 1-0, in Milan on a sublime fastbreak goal set up by winger Aaron Lennon and scored by striker Peter Crouch.

By the end of the second quarter, Venice's biggest challenge was not reaching the end zone but staying out of it. With a 45-point lead over Los Angeles Locke in a City Section Division I first-round playoff game Friday night, the host Gondoliers took a knee deep in Saints territory on the final play of the first half. Venice made several more displays of good sportsmanship in the second half of its 66-0 victory. The Gondoliers used scores of junior varsity players who had been promoted for the playoffs and received an assist from officials who mandated a running clock.

It would go down as perhaps the greatest act of sportsmanship in college football history, but Lou Conti and his Cornell teammates wanted no part of it. Seventy years ago this month, the Big Red scored a last-second touchdown to secure a controversial 7-3 victory over Dartmouth, extending its winning streak to 19 games and keeping alive its dream of winning a national championship. But then the muckety-mucks decided to give it away. Here's why: A review of game films revealed that, because of an officiating error, Cornell was mistakenly awarded an extra play, scoring its winning points on fifth down.

It is one of the stranger side effects of the Saints' march to glory: As this city prepares for a crucial election to replace its Katrina-era mayor, the joy over its football team's upcoming Super Bowl debut may be quelling the local penchant for smash-mouth politics. C. Ray Nagin, New Orleans' mayor, is leaving office because of term limits after a fractious post-hurricane tenure marked by racial discord and frustration over the pace of rebuilding. On Saturday, six major candidates will compete to replace him. Many expected the contenders to be slinging bayou mud by the catapult-load by now. But this political season is like no other.

I am neither a Trojan nor Bruin fan, but I was shocked and appalled by Terry Donahue's lack of class and sportsmanship during the second half of the USC game. With the score 38-0, one would think that he would put in his second- and third-string players. Yet, there was Matt Stevens rolling out and throwing passes in the fourth quarter. Brendan McCracken did little else but run the wishbone on third-down plays. Ron Caragher, who had not played a single down all year, did not get an opportunity to play in the final game of the year.

LONDON -- In a country chockablock with soccer competitions, a second-round match between second- and third-tier clubs in the third-most-coveted domestic tournament normally would go unnoticed. Yet Leicester City's visit to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night in the League Cup managed to lure some attention for a reason downright bizarre. It backlit an uncommon demonstration of sportsmanship.

'Tis the season to be jolly, so let's have a giggle or two over big-time college sports. What a joke. We'll dedicate our belly laughs to Joe McKnight's Land Rover, only the most recent chuckle. Yuk yuk. We can toss in Brian Kelly's coaching departure from Cincinnati to Notre Dame, leaving an undefeated team to play in a major bowl with a bad taste in its mouth. How about the rub-it-in play at the end of the USC-UCLA football game this year? Got a wound? Call in Pete Carroll's salt-pouring specialists.

The wife likes to say, "You think you're always right." I'm not surprised she would state the obvious, although I've detected almost a derogatory ring to her voice at times. Now I would guess most people think they are right when they speak, with maybe the exception of Plaschke , who is always wrong and must know it by now. The burden that comes with always being right, of course, is the frustration of hearing from those who get it wrong and don't understand I'm always right.