Vicarious Living.
Having coached my daughter's soccer and teeball teams now for a few years I've seen some truly irrational and inappropriate behaviour.

I've had to escort 2 dads off the pitch after they had a verbal and then physical altercation over whether a player was offside. At an Under 6's games, where there are 4x4 players and NO offside rules. In front of their kids and ALL the other parents. On a pitch about 1/6th the size of a full sized pitch. One of them refused to leave the ground until I threatened to call the cops (as per club protocol).

I watched a dad berate his son continually after he *just* missed scoring a goal, having tackled an opposition player to get the ball, run with it, passed it a couple of times and then been in place for a beautiful cross and shoot. I made sure he got man of the match.

I've had a dad who worked away 5 weeks and 1 off. He was on the committee. Every 6 weeks he'd turn up in his committee shirt to tell all and sundry that he was "in the committee" and do little else.
One week I pointed out another dad to him. One that had been going out onto the diamond every single week to tell the young players where their positions were. Not once did I ask that dad to do that - he simply saw a need and filled it. And he wasn't on the committee!

I've had an opposition teams parent screaming and shouting at me because I've asked them to move from behind our goal as they've been yelling at their players and our goalie. Even though I've pointed out that it's against the rules.

Kids + Sport (seems to) = Irrational behaviour from some parents. Particularly those parents who are trying desperately to relive their youth via their children.

What's really scary is how much more full-on it gets as kids get older!
(s0ckpuppet logging out to reply to you if you're not careful, Mon 14 Oct 2013, 11:22, 12 replies)

diamond?
I played junior australian rules football in melbourne's endless surburbia. one under 10s match, an assorted of about 20 dads, including my own, starting having an all-in brawl on the sidelines. play stopped while we watched
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Mon 14 Oct 2013, 11:59, closed)

As in baseball.
EDIT: I liked this edited response.
(s0ckpuppet logging out to reply to you if you're not careful, Mon 14 Oct 2013, 12:03, closed)

ah sorry, I didn't clock the teeball thing

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Mon 14 Oct 2013, 12:04, closed)

Under 14s rugby seems to bring out some right pricks, too.
It's amazing how excited middle-aged men can get over little boys running around trying to touch the ribbons hanging from each others' shorts.
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Mon 14 Oct 2013, 12:19, closed)