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James Harrison Returning His Sons' Participation Award Trophies

Jeffg010 said:
This why the millennials generation is so entitled. They don't understand what it takes to earn something.
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As best I can tell, his two sons are 8 and 6 years old. I think that's a little young to be focusing on their performance compared to their peers, particularly in athletics. IMHO there's nothing wrong with putting the emphasis on participation rather than performance at that age. I think you can wait till they're 10-12 years old to shift the focus to performance and "winning".

Frankly, what drove me crazy as we were raising our kids were all the parents at sporting events who got down on their kids when they didn't perform well. It was sad to see them trying to relive (and doubtlessly improve on) their teen lives through their kids. Never missed a game, but seldom bothered with parent-teacher conferences. 😡 For almost all kids, sports is an extracurricular activity and needs to be kept in perspective.

I can understand why a professional athlete like James Harrison might have different "family values", but I'm not thinking they're the best for most young kids.

My two cents...
 
Using your children to make a political statement is a jerk move. He could have just talked with his children and not announced it to the world. All he did was make it about himself instead of his children. Typical for someone using a social network.
 
What a dick.

I played little league in the 70's. I have all of my participation trophy's that the coach gave us. I also have my 2 first place all star game trophy's. All of them mean something to me. As do the plaques I got from the air force units I was assigned to.
 
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Those are some big freaking trophies to be handing out to little kids! What a waste of parents/sponsor money.

Why is anyone getting trophies at this age? What "championship" did the coaches/parents invent so that their precious snowflake could get special recognition?

Our local little league had crap like this for kids as little as 5. That's why we switched to lacrosse. Play in a "tournament" - get a t-shirt. It recognizes the kids' hard work, promotes the sport, and helps avoid making some 7-9 year olds think they're better than others.
 
PowerEngineer said:
As best I can tell, his two sons are 8 and 6 years old. I think that's a little young to be focusing on their performance compared to their peers, particularly in athletics. IMHO there's nothing wrong with putting the emphasis on participation rather than performance at that age. I think you can wait till they're 10-12 years old to shift the focus to performance and "winning".

Frankly, what drove me crazy as we were raising our kids were all the parents at sporting events who got down on their kids when they didn't perform well. It was sad to see them trying to relive (and doubtlessly improve on) their teen lives through their kids. Never missed a game, but seldom bothered with parent-teacher conferences. 😡 For almost all kids, sports is an extracurricular activity and needs to be kept in perspective.

I can understand why a professional athlete like James Harrison might have different "family values", but I'm not thinking they're the best for most young kids.

My two cents...
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This.

balloonshark said:
Using your children to make a political statement is a jerk move. He could have just talked with his children and not announced it to the world. All he did was make it about himself instead of his children. Typical for someone using a social network.
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And this.

No ring when your team didn't win the Super Bowl? Fair enough. No trophy for young kids for doing something fun that they will very likely not do for a living, and you have to tell errbody about it? Get off the fucking stage. I thought Ron Swanson was a fictional character. Looks like all those exceedingly manly helmet-to-helmets have finally taken their toll.
 
I think it's great. He's not saying they did anything wrong or that they were lousy players, he's saying a trophy is something that should be earned for results, not for participation.

I like the t-shirt idea. An acknowledgment of being involved, but it doesn't imply "Look how great you did!"
 
another problem with giving these participation trophies is that they completely devalue the trophies that the first place teams get.

a team goes 16-0 and another team goes 0-16, yet they have identical trophies. makes the reward for coming in first place worthless. what is the point in trying if you will end up with the same thing?
 
purbeast0 said:
another problem with giving these participation trophies is that they completely devalue the trophies that the first place teams get.

a team goes 16-0 and another team goes 0-16, yet they have identical trophies. makes the reward for coming in first place worthless. what is the point in trying if you will end up with the same thing?
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This is my problem with participation trophies. A ribbon for participation, and a trophy for winning would work.
 
Awesome. Props. In the 80s as a kid playing baseball only the top 3 teams got a trophy all sized accordingly as to who the superior team was 😛
 
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OutHouse said:
What a dick.

I played little league in the 70's. I have all of my participation trophy's that the coach gave us. I also have my 2 first place all star game trophy's. All of them mean something to me. As do the plaques I got from the air force units I was assigned to.
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They can mean something to you, that's cool. But they shouldn't resemble what the winners get. A ribbon to acknowledge you participated, perhaps, if the winners get trophies. Or as someone else mentioned, a t-shirt or other memorabilia.

But not a trophy. Trophies are for winners. You didn't get a trophy in the Air Force, correct?

Actually, put it this way: there are service medals for specific things. You didn't get a highly-prized medal and ribbon for simply being in a unit, correct? You got plaques. And, perhaps, you got basic medals for serving a certain number of years and/or simply being in the military. But they were distinct medals, not the same as those earned by going above and beyond, yes?

That's the difference that it seems Harrison is pointing out, and I agree with him. Participation can be acknowledged, sure, but do it right. A trophy is not the right answer.
 
Three thumbs up. It's time children are taught to excel against and not be recognized for mediocrity. This definitely needs to be ingrained in their minds at a young age. It's how some of the Asian countries, like Japan, do it. They have very competitive tests at a young age that decide what kind of school your children can get into from middle school, which has a big impact on how well you will do in the future job market.
 
sourceninja said:
My favorite is TKD trophies. When I was a kid we would drive all over to these competitions. The 3rd place trophy would be almost as tall as me and they would break us up into groups of 4. So basically 2nd to last place was a 4 foot tall trophy.
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lol yeah. My son was in TKD for a few years. we went to a few tournaments. he always got these huge trophy's. even at 8 he knows that everyone got one so he don't give a crap about them.

My daughter is in gymnastics. at least in this they only give the top few (it depends on the number of girls) a medal. though some give the top 3 a trophy or snowglobe.

at lower levels EVERYONE gets a ribbon.


I don't mind kids getting participation awards at younger ages. by 10 though it should change.
 
angminas said:
This.



And this.

No ring when your team didn't win the Super Bowl? Fair enough. No trophy for young kids for doing something fun that they will very likely not do for a living, and you have to tell errbody about it? Get off the fucking stage. I thought Ron Swanson was a fictional character. Looks like all those exceedingly manly helmet-to-helmets have finally taken their toll.
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Only people who have never won shit think like this. Just give the kids a hat or tshirt - trophies are for winners, not beta losers.
 
SP33Demon said:
Only people who have never won shit think like this. Just give the kids a hat or tshirt - trophies are for winners, not beta losers.
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This.

I've competed plenty in my life. I always felt worse because of participation awards. It's like, "here you go... you didn't win, so I hope this helps your feelings!"... I recognized them for what they were, and I felt like they just made the situation worse.

I didn't want to receive anything unless I earned it. I was made when I didn't get anything, because I was mad about my performance or not being on a better team.
 
sourceninja said:
I'm ok with participation ribbons or tiny trophies because it says "Hey, you stuck this out and dedicated yourself to something, good job". We just have to remind kids that that's not the same as being competitive and striving to win.

My wife is a runner and gets medals for every race she runs, but she's never won. She likes them as mementos of the race. They are all hung on a hat rack in her office. It is a little thing that she can show her friends to say "See I ran a marathon!".

I remember competing at NAGA where first place got a sword and 2nd place got a battle axe. I remember thinking, man If I get to the final round I might throw it, that's a sweet axe.
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Not always.

I've coached A LOT of youth sports in my time -- from local rec leagues to highly competitive travel ball. A lot of times in these rec leagues everyone will get a trophy at the end of the season. And sometimes kids that showed up for maybe 1/2 the practices, 2/3 of the games were getting participation awards. When they were there, these were often the same kids that inattentive, a distraction to the kids who paying attention and generally wanted nothing to do with it -- they HARDLY participated. The trophy was a mockery to the kids that DID show up and worked at getting better.

Again, I have devoted A LOT of blood, sweat and tears in my time to youth sports at all ages and levels. Depending on the age and the level of competitiveness, I'm generally OK with participation awards of some nature. At the ages of 6 and 8 in Harrison's kids' case, I don't have an issue with it (though I have issue with the size of these awards given... CHRIST!) As others here have pointed out a ribbon, a shirt (or the damned jersey should be "participation" enough) or even just a paper certificate should be enough.
 
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