8 Psychotic Overreactions by Adults at Youth Sporting Events

Anybody who played sports as a kid has probably had one or both of their parents behave in such a ridiculously embarrassing manner during a game that it still makes us cringe just to think about it. So it should come as no surprise that on athletic fields around the world, the phenomena known as Sideline Rage (that is, adults acting like unbalanced assholes during children's sporting events) seems to have gotten even more terrifying since we were kids.

As much as every parent says, "It doesn't matter if you win as long as you have fun," nobody wants their kid running around picking daisies in the outfield and taking fancy-pants swings at the ball. Sure, you can make your kid do extra practice at home, or maybe even spring for a personal trainer. Or, if you're like dentist and overzealous sports dad Dr. Stephen Cito, you can weaponize your son's football helmet before a big game.

Not quite this, but almost.

Taking a page out sports legend Ty Cobb's playbook, Dr. Cito sharpened the face guard of his son's football helmet so it would slash any opposing players that got close enough. His son wore the death helmet in a game against high school rival Albuquerque Academy. After five players were taken off the field with lacerations, referees halted the game, and an inspection of the Cito's super-helmet revealed it was "sharp enough to shred a magazine cover."

Hopefully this one.

Let's make it clear: He didn't rig this thing to scratch up some arms and hands and make the game a little tougher on the other team. One opposing player had to be taken to the hospital to get 10 stitches on his arm. Yes, this is a real thing that happened.

Cito's son was expelled from St. Pious High and banned from competition for a year. Dr. Cito himself was charged with conspiring to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to two days in jail, one year probation and 400 hours community service, presumably teaching little leaguers how to file down a toothbrush and hide it in their glove.

Inner team conflict can definitely ruin an organization's chances for success.

"I've had it with your GODDAMN BALL HOGGING!"

So when your kid has a teammate who's giving him problems, you can teach him to stand up for himself, or even give him some basic conflict resolution techniques. Or, you could go Jerome Breland's way and add ipecac (ie "a chemical that makes you vomit violently") to a juice bottle, then have your son give it to the kid who's pissing him off.

If the uncontrollable puking isn't enough, keep in mind that ipecac can lead to serious illness or death if administered improperly (a phrase which here means "secretly feeding it to a child"). Breland's diabolical plan for clandestine revenge ran into trouble when the rest of the team wound up drinking the spiked juice as well.

Practice for the team's upcoming championship game ended abruptly, as players began running off the field, clutching their stomachs and puking Go-Gurt all over the sidelines. Unaware that the children had essentially been poisoned, parents and coaches rushed eight of the kids to local hospitals thinking they'd caught a new strain of Ebola from the monkey meat they use in the cafeteria meatloaf.

A police investigation uncovered Breland's nefarious deed and he was sentenced to six months' house arrest and one year of community service, because what community wouldn't benefit from the forced labor of a man who purposely caused serious harm to young children.

When Virginia dad Dan Hinkle flipped out over his son's field reassignment during a big game, he acted like the entire league revolved around his kid. Though, he kind of had a point on that one.

See, Hinkle personally bankrolled the 250 player strong football league called the "South County Youth Association" to the tune of $150,000 and had named himself commissioner. He advised the coaches of his son's team that "Scott does not sit out on defense--ever. The entire league exists so he can play defense on the best team in his weight class. He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense."

Because if you're going to sponsor little league football,
you might as well rule it with an iron fist.

When Hinkle (who didn't even attend the game in question) found out that his son had been moved from defense to offense for the final game of the season, resulting in an overtime win that put the team in the postseason, he fired all the coaches and hired replacements for the playoff games.

In protest, the team of 12 to 14-year olds refused to play for the new coaches, so the playoffs went on without them. The entire South County Association was eventually dissolved when it was decided that they had not complied with the rules, which include having an elected board and a grievance procedure and not being run by a five-year-old douchebag in a man's body.

Kennedy Middle School volleyball coach Toni Gay suffered an embarrassing loss when her entire team was disqualified from a game because of derogatory comments made by a fan.

Gay, overcome with white-hot fury, walked out to her car, grabbed a meat cleaver and tried to bring it back inside with her. While we can only speculate on why she happened to have a cleaver in her car, there isn't a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to figuring out why she would want to introduce one to an argument.

Gay later explained in her defense that things had gotten "just crazy,'' a fact which no one disputed but was still not enough to keep her from getting fired, arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a weapon on school property, leading us to wonder what exactly constitutes lawful use of a weapon on school property.

The answer is Christian Slater in Heathers.