by WDAZ
Grand Forks Wrestler, Accused of Biting Opponent, Disqualified From State Tourney
February 14, 2012 at 1:15 pm in WDAZ
GRAND FORKS (WDAZ-TV) – One of eastern North Dakota’s top high school wrestlers has been preparing all season for the state competition this weekend in Bismarck. Continue Reading
I was skeptical at first, but when I heard that an expert says it was the braces and not a bite, that makes a lot of sense.
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Too bad the facts of the case do not support the outcome. Poor young man.
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Who cares?? Ref made a judgment call, is he supposed to call in a forensic pathologist to determine the bite pattern? Get real people. As Gump said, it happens. I think they can call this a teaching moment, part of life.
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It is part of sports and life. Get over it, welcome to life. The kid is a Sophomore and can come back next two years.
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This is late in the game, but after reading through the posts, one question that needs to be asked is why is the parent so involved? Is this a reflection of our societal evolution of over-involved parents? If any ruling were to be made, it should be based on what the coach and athletic administrators submitted, not a parent. I get it that he is upset and emotionally attached to the outcome of the event’s effect it has on his son as he sees what the rest of us don’t when they get in the car to go home, but what road would this lead us down if parents could initiate and file lawsuits/injunctions based on game official decisions (right or wrong) and attempt to change the outcomes of competition?
A recent situation where officials’ decision affected the outcome of a game that had State Tournament implications and parents sought legal intervention:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/parents-sue-over-blown-call-in-hopes-of-n-m-playoff-spot?urn=highschool,wp8428
It is an unfortunate event that happened to a young man that can and is being used as a life lesson that life is not always fair, a wrong is not always made right when invested parties have had time to reflect and think. We can suggest what could be done differently in future events, but in the end we all must cope and move on with the outcomes whether we like it or not.
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Mmm, unfortunate, yes. But I heard the other side of the story…which the media decided to either not pursue or leave out entirely. The boy did bite his opponent and in my opinion should have been hauled out of the gym by his ear and not allowed to stay in the gym with his team. The punishment was not stiff enough, there is no place for that behavIor in high school sports. He should publicly apologize to his opponent, as should his coach and now his father after this news story. Our athletes should be held to a higher standard. The young man that was bitten is in 8th grade and moved to ND from out of state last Spring. As a North Dakotan, I am ashamed and embarrassed at the treatment and handling of this incident. What should have been a fun and memorable experience was ruined for him. It would seem that winning is more important than instilling decent morals and values in our youth. It was a sad day in ND sports. I hope his impression of North Dakota’s High School Athletics and the media circus surrounding it won’t forever be tarnished by this incident. We as North Dakotans are better than that. Shame on us.
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Try reading the entire story.
“Coaches and family members say Murphy’s opponent cross-faced him, knocking off his mouth guard and ran his arm against Murphy’s braces, causing a .3 centimeter scratch.”
Murphy’s family called in a UND forensic pathologist who says there’s no way the mark could be a from a bite. ”
Sorry Deb, but unless you’re a forensic pathologist with a differing stance your opinion doesn’t hold much water.
Having wrestled in high-school and college, I know the likelihood of a mouth guard becoming dislodged is more than possible- it’s highly likely. I don’t know where the lack of morals comes into play other than the unfair disqualification by officials.
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I did read the whole story, unfortunately, many of the facts were left unreported. So much has been made about this scratch, which was an old scabbed over scratch from before the match. So it makes sense that the expert would say it is not from a bite as it wasn’t. The ref saw the bite marks, that is why he called it the way he did. I view it as a lack of morals when an athlete bites his opponent and then cries foul when he has to face the consequences of his actions.
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And a forensic pathologist would overlook all this?!? Any reasonable one would not.
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I agree with The Man’s comment above. Even if we assume the referee made the wrong call, we have to assume it was not intentional on the part of the referee. Mistakes happen and “bad calls” are a part of sports.
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I think there should be some recourse for the wrestler. There should be some sort of appeal process in a situation such as this. I wrestled in high school with braces and a similar situation. a guy cross faced me, scraped his arm on my braces and there was a mark on his forearm. First thing that was asked is if I had bit him and I said no you could also tell by the marks it was not a bite mark. They stopped the match, cleaned his arm up and let us go after he got it wrapped up. What begs me to ask .3cm is pretty damn hard to be seen as a bite in the first place and it’s also damn near impossible to bite a guys arm if you are getting a cross face. I call BS and a bit of favoratism on the ref.
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It’s quite apparent some here no very little on the dynamics of wrestling. Unless you’ve actually done in as part of high school or college, your opinions do not hold much water; much like my thoughts on giving childbirth. I know little about it, so I tend to keep my mouth shut on the subject.
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