Another Senseless Tragedy: Soccer Referee Dies

Another Senseless Tragedy: Soccer Referee Dies

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In his spare time, Ricardo Portillo refereed local youth soccer games simply because he loved doing so. His daughters tried to get him to stop because he was previously attacked by soccer players who disagreed with his calls. One player broke his leg and another broke his ribs. On April 27, 2013, Portillo called a foul on a goalie and issued him a yellow card. In response, the 17-year-old player sucker-punched him in the face while Portillo was writing down his notes. Several hours later, he slipped into a coma. One week later, he died.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TKg8RLarrA

Author’s Perspective: Three weeks ago I was in Taylorsville, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen – nothing but mountains, sunshine and fresh air. The views are intoxicating and left me  feeling peaceful and calm. To think that in this setting, a boy would punch a referee because he received a “yellow card” in a youth-league soccer game with nothing at stake, is… absurd… crazy…so sad.

Small Picture: Ricardo Portillo’s life is over at the age of 46 and all the good that he would have provided went with him. His daughters (Johana and Ana) were robbed of spending many more years together and will forever mourn him. His grandchildren will grow up without knowing him. This affects so many people – his extended family, his employer and friends. And, think about the life of this 17-year-old kid. Due to a momentary loss of his temper, his life is basically lost too.  He will spend most of his life in prison. His parents will mourn him too in their own way.

Big Picture: I could show you video after video of athletes, parents and coaches who act like idiots without any foresight of the consequences for their behavior. I hear obscenities in the crowds at games, watch coaches yell and scream at officials and have narrowly avoided fights between fans of competing schools. This inappropriate behavior happens at the professional level, in college, in high school and in recreational leagues.

Tip of The Iceberg: We hear about this case because Ricardo Portillo died. We never heard about the players who broke his ribs and leg. We don’t hear about the thousands of outbursts, fights and injuries around this country. My question is, how did we get to this point? Where is the anger coming from? Isn’t it just a game?  Athletics is supposed to provide people with exercise, competition and fun. It pushes a player to test individual limits and to work as a team. It also provides entertainment for those who are watching.

Your Turn (follow us & tweet responses @CDandLeadership using #CDandL): 1) What thoughts and feelings did you have when you heard this story?
2) What kinds of behaviors have you personally seen at sporting events like this?
3) List as many societal reasons this type of behavior occurs in sport?
4) List as many solutions you could provide to diminish this behavior?

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  1. Wow, that’s just childish. Instead of the player keeping his composure, he hit the ref that was just doing his job. I play soccer and I wouldn’t imagine doing that to a ref. This ref had a family and for a player to do something like this, it’s just disrespectful.

    1. i understand that he was mad but he is playing the game so he has to go by the rules and understand they just doing what they was told

  2. 1. I think that this is the stupidest reason to hurt someone to the point where they killed him. This is depressing to see just a 17 year old have to spend his life in prison for a loss of composure, yet he deserved this sentence for killing someone.
    2. i have seen not the players but the fans disputing back and forth because of just ridiculous teams. I think this is all just unnecessary.
    3. peer pressure wants you to win and when you don’t, in the spur of the moment, you get angry with who ever is in your way and react when your brain isn’t thinking
    4. taking a breather, taking anger management classes, getting a stress reliever,etc.

  3. 1. It is sad to hear that one person lost his composure costed another persons life.
    2. I have seen people loss there composure when someone says that the team they like is not the best.
    3. peer pressure gets to everyone at one point or another. And the outcome is not always a good out come.
    4. Think before you act, do not just act think about the out come before you do something.

  4. 1. The way I felt when I read this was shocked and sad because one person lost his composure and him doing so costed another man’s life.
    2. I’ve seen parents yell and curse at couches and I’ve seen people lose their composure when someone insults their favorite team.
    3. Peer pressure get to everyone and makes them act out eventually.
    4. Think before you act. Think about what the consequences will be.

  5. This was a silly way for this man’s life to end. All because of a soccer player with anger issues. He had a family to feed and this man ruined his family’s life.

  6. 1) What thoughts and feelings did you have when you heard this story? – When I heard this story I felt sad and sympathy for his daughter because Ricardo Portillo had a family and didn’t deserve to die because someone lost their composure over a call.

    2) What kinds of behaviors have you personally seen at sporting events like this? – I have seen many fighting occasions with a referee in sporting events like this.

    3) List as many societal reasons this type of behavior occurs in sport? – This type of behavior might occur because the player might think a play was a bad call or get frustrated with the ref.

    4) List as many solutions you could provide to diminish this behavior? – Solutions to diminish this behavior is to take anger management classes, suspend the player, and menace them off the team.

  7. 1) This makes me sad because it really is just a game and how could you possibly get that mad and hurt someone. What ever happened to good sportsmanship?
    2) At some sports events people are just way to competitive and get angry way to easily. At basketball games people from the other teams start drama talking trash and that is what leads to confrontation.
    3) Some reasons this happens is because people are way to competitive, anger, and they want to stick up fro their team.
    4) I think they should get some major consequences. They should be banned fro the whole season or just cant play at all fro the school or whatever organization.

  8. 1) What thoughts and feelings did you have when you heard this story?
    I first felt that why would someone do that. I’m just trying to imagine myself in that situation and seeing my coach getting punched, I would be devastated.

    2) What kinds of behaviors have you personally seen at sporting events like this?
    I’ve never seen something with the referee but I have seen fights between the teams.

    3) List as many societal reasons this type of behavior occurs in sport?
    Players might be angry and frustrated so in the moment they don’t know how to control themselves so they just do something without even realizing what the consequences to that are.

    4) List as many solutions you could provide to diminish this behavior?
    Something you can do is to have someone there to pull the players away from the referee. Make sure that all the player know the consequences of all their actions. Anger Management classes to players are also a good idea.

  9. 1. I felt loss of words because I felt really sad that he had died and really mad that the play had punched the ref.

    2. I have not seen anything violent or physical but there is always arguing about calls in soccer games.

    3. I think those kinds of behaviors happen because the player always think they know or saw more than the ref does and they obviously do not want to be called out on a foul.

    4. Anger management classes or good sportsmanship classes.

  10. 1) The first thing that I thought of this story was that it was going to be a sad story. My feelings were it was going to be a sad story.

    2)The sports behaviors I’ve seen in sports is that they talk back to the ref for a bad call.

    3) The behaviors that happen in sports is angry for a bad call.

    4) The thing you can do is to tell them they can get suspended for this game and the next game, it will help them calm down.

  11. 1) What thoughts and feelings did you have when you heard this story?- when I heard this story I was shocked and felt bad for the referee’s family. The referee didn’t deserve to die because he was doing his job.

    2) What kinds of behaviors have you personally seen at sporting events like this?- I have seen people at sporting events like this loose there composure and start screaming at the referees and getting into fights with their teammates.

    3) List as many societal reasons this type of behavior occurs in sport?-This type of behavior occurs in sports because people can get frustrated and think a call that the referee made was a bad.

    4) List as many solutions you could provide to diminish this behavior?- To diminish this kind of behavior players should try to keep their composure and stay calm. If the coach sees that a certain player gets mad to often he should remove the player from the team.

  12. 1. When I first read this story I thought to myself “lots of people don’t know how to except the truth and move on”. It is sad to think that people do this to others.
    2. I have seen some parents start yelling at refs and saying rude things, and some people who complain about it when it wasn’t what they wanted to hear.
    3. This happens for many reason. The top reason this happens is because some people have yet to grow up, and be respectful. Other reasons could be that people don’t like the truth and think their kid does no wrong, and that their kid is pro athlete.
    4. Tell all the younger kids that it isn’t ok to act like this, and if a parent acts like that kick them out for the rest of the season.

    1. a lot of people don’t know how to accept the truth and move on

      I hate it when parents yell at the refs because they didn’t get their way how they wanted it to happen

      when they think their kids are pro athlete and think that they’re going to go into a big college but sometimes it could just be that the parents are just not ready to accept that their kids not going to go

      the kids think it’s okay to act this way because their parents act this way

  13. People really need to learn how to control their anger. This was such a sad thing to happen. This poor man died because some teenage boy was angry about a call. It is very childish and honestly he needs to learn some respect.

  14. 1. I think that this is the stupidest reason to hurt someone to the point where they killed him. This is depressing to see just a 17 year old have to spend his life in prison for a loss of composure, yet he deserved this sentence for killing someone.
    2. i have seen not the players but the fans disputing back and forth because of just ridiculous teams. I think this is all just unnecessary.
    3. peer pressure wants you to win and when you don’t, in the spur of the moment, you get angry with who ever is in your way and react when your brain isn’t thinking
    4. taking a breather, taking anger management classes, getting a stress reliever,etc.

  15. I seen that the person has lost his composure without thinking about the consequences first. Take anger managements and think about the consequences before you try to do anything

  16. 1.) i felt kind of shocked really, and a loss of words.
    2.) i maybe have seen players or even coaches going back and forth with the referees. sometimes even each other.
    3.) because it’s competition. anything to win!! if it were just to play for fun i don’t think it would be like this.
    4.) kmsl, provide a therapy group before the game.

  17. At sporting events people loss their composure and I feel that it is unacceptable but people can’t felt but to feel emotions towards their team.

  18. 1) This makes me sad because it really is just a game and how could you possibly get that mad and hurt someone. What ever happened to good sportsmanship?
    2) At some sports events people are just way to competitive and get angry way to easily. At basketball games people from the other teams start drama talking trash and that is what leads to confrontation.
    3) Some reasons this happens is because people are way to competitive, anger, and they want to stick up fro their team.
    4) I think they should get some major consequences. They should be banned fro the whole season or just cant play at all fro the school or whatever organization.

  19. I have seen people become really upset, not only just the crowd but also the players.
    There is a high increase of adrenaline, masculinity, and there are a lot of emotions and competition.
    He should evaluate his calls, establish respect in the soccer teams, and the player should have worked on his anger.

  20. 1. I feel like what happened was entirely avoidable. All the kid had to do was keep his cool, but now someone is dead because of his anger.
    2. I’ve seen teammates fight each other and with the opposing team, but I have never seen anyone die from these fights let alone a defenseless referee.
    3. Anger, arguments, insults
    4. Game suspensions, kicking them off teams, school suspensions.

  21. 1. The way I felt when I read this was stunned and sad because one person lost his composure him doing this costed another man’s life.
    2. I’ve seen parents yell at couches and people lose their composure when someone insults their favorite team.
    3. Peer pressure can get to everyone, making them act eventually.
    4. Think before you act and think about what the consequences will be.

  22. This was a silly way for this man’s life to end. All because of a soccer player with anger issues. He had a family to feed and this man ruined his family’s life.

  23. I think that the soccer player(s) that committed the actions that led to the man’s death did not have composure. Even if the player had received a yellow card, they could have handled the situation calmly and more effectively. I have seen parents and players react without composure to a ref but not in this way.

  24. This is a very lesson worthy document because it shows people somewhat of a mentality of an uncomposed person and a composed person and what and how it affects people and things

  25. This was a childish way to handle anger, I think that we can learn to be more contained when playing in sports. It shows how something that seemed to be so small can ruin somebody’s life, as well as the people around them.

  26. This is an example on how dangerous it can be to not keep your composure and let things get the best of you. And when you don’t keep your composure it can not only have negative affects on you but others.

  27. This is an example on how dangerous it can be to not keep your composure and let things get the best of you. And when you don’t keep your composure it can not only have negative affects on you but others… yeah

  28. People should keep their composure because if they don’t that could cause danger to people around them or themself. People need to learn how to keep their composure in a tough situation.

  29. i get that he was mad but hitting a ref over a game is just childish and disrespectful. ive played soccer n yes it is angering but hitting the ref?!?? thats just pure reckless childish behaviour. people need to keep their composure and have a good game not making any unjustified actions.

  30. 1. I thought it was wrong to have bullied and hurt the referee after some call in a sports game I understand they are competitive but it’s still wrong
    2. In the NBA players argue with the ref but they never try to hurt the ref
    3. People are very competitive, maybe have some anger issues, maybe can’t control their emotions
    4. I mean if that were me I wouldn’t have gotten that mad over some card I would have just stayed calm.

  31. This blog shows composure because even when the referee was getting mistreated he still kept calm and controlled himself and emotion.

  32. this could of been avoided if the soccer player just kept his composure, both of their lives were ruined because of the teenagers unjustified action. I hope the kid learned his lesson and i hope this will open up young eyes and they consume the message it conveys.