I play soccer in an over-30 rec league on Sundays.
Last Sunday the team we were playing had this dude that was playing very aggressively, yelling at the refs, his team, our team, the ball, etc. Generally making what should have been an enjoyable time for all into a tense occasion.
He's one of those 5'3" guys with a bad temper and a motor that runs at 200 mph, a Napoleon type.
Anyways, near the end of the game (we're up 2-0 at this point) he is trying to get the ball away from one of my teammates, a guy about twice his size. And for the umpteenth time during the game he goes sprawling to the ground and cries foul.
As me and my teammate (the one who Napoleon just tangled with) are running up the field, I decided to open a can of smartass, so I ran up to my teammate, made very slight contact with him, and did a big comical trip and fall to the ground. It was funny. Mr. Bonaparte didn't find it amusing however.
So he starts trying to start a fight with me - "imitate me to my face" he says about a dozen times. Now I'm one of the last guys to ever want to get into a fistfight with somebody - I'm a pretty low key, non-aggressive person. Plus, I'm no big guy either, and this guy's high energy and bad temper were a little scary. So I keep my cool and a fight is narrowly averted.
I find out later that this guy is the Mayor's son. So that clears up the mystery of why the refs did absolutely nothing when this guy was starting sh*t with me.
Of course this situation has my paranoia going through the roof. I don't know anything about this guy except for what I saw during that game, and what I saw wasn't good. There is a saying - "sports don't build character, they reveal it" - that applies here. I wonder if this guy is a real psycho and is determined to show me in some way or another that I smarted off to the wrong guy.
Next week will be another game. We won't be playing his team, but he will be playing in the game before and likely will be there when I arrive for my game.
3 weeks from now will be the tournament, which brings a possibility of playing his team again, where I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself on the receiving end of some dirty and viscious play. It was apparent that Napoleon's teammates are his "boys".
I enjoy playing soccer, but it amazes me how seriously some people in these rec leagues take it. Part of me wants to go out and play again to show this turd that I'm not afraid of him. On the other hand, I don't enjoy playing soccer that much. And this guy being the mayor's son, it seems like he has a little bit of extra freedom in Bexley Ohio. Who knows, he may have forgot about it by now, but of course my paranoid imagination has been playing all kinds of lovely violent scenarios where this guy tries to seriously hurt me.
What say you? Would you go back? Is this a battle worth fighting?
*sigh* If it ain't one thing it's another.