“It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce to you our speaker this morning”. We have heard that often, no doubt, at the start of a workshop, conference or speech. Sometimes the one who has the privilege of introducing the speaker also delights in having the stage and the microphone for a while and uses the opportunity to show how well he knows the speaker — in other words, to be the centre of attraction for a while. One scenario was where the introducer took twenty-three minutes to introduce the speaker while the speaker graciously and patiently waited — and waited — and waited. The ’assist’ was almost as long (and in his mind, as important) as the main talk!
We may also have experienced at some stage in our lives the extraordinary practice whereby we have to have one person introduce another person who introduces a further person who in turn must introduce another person whose role is to introduce an important person who will give an introduction for an even-more important person to present and introduce the main speaker — again, extremely time-consuming, energy-sapping, soul-destroying and necessity-defeating. It is called, we are told most importantly, protocol. We would probably like to call it a lot of other names too!
Sport is becoming a little like that, as well, it would seem. Not only are we told which player scored the goal but now we are told who ‘provided the assist’, in other words who passed the ball to the one who “scored” the goal; even when it was a long punt of the ball down the field by the goalkeeper, it counted as an ‘assist’. However, if we are going that route, surely we should also be stating who gave the assist to the assist to the goal? Was that pass not as important as the final pass? And while we are at it, perhaps we should name the player who provided the assist for the assist for the assist — is that not following protocol? But let us not stop there — who gave the assist to the assist to the assist to the assist…? Stop! Enough!
If we are going to stop, then actually we need to stop naming the individual who ‘scored’ the goal as that player was simply the last one on his team to touch the ball before it crossed the line. He is no more important than any of the other players on the team. If it was not for the other players the ball would not have reached him and so he would not have put the ball over the line. The fact is that no individual scored a goal; the team scored the goal. The English Premier League results for last weekend included the following: Aston Villa 2:1 Arsenal and Leeds 3:3 Liverpool. We did not read M. Cash 1 and E. Buendía 1; L. Trossard 1 – no, it was Aston Villa 2:1 Arsenal. The teams scored the goals. We do not need to give special attention to the one who happened to be at the end of the line (even if that is what all the protocol for the speechmaker is).
We are even told who provided the assist for each goal: B. Kamara assisted E. Buendía — good for him! However, the last touch before the other Aston Villa goal and the Arsenal goal were by opposition players so they do not count them as ‘assists’, even if their team-mate did play the ball before that. If we are going to go the route of naming the scorer and assist, then we need to record endlessly the name of all the players who played the ball up to that point, as they all contributed in some small unique way for the score to be as it was — if the goalkeeper had not saved the shot at one end the player would not have “scored” at the other end.
Team sport is about teams; the team scored and the team provided the assists. As John Wooden always said, “The star of the team is the team”. The team should be given the ‘Top Scorer’ award, if anyone, as the team scored. We do not need such an award for individuals.
Some speeches (but maybe not enough!) start with “All protocol observed”, instead of listing a whole group of people of varying degrees of apparent importance. Such an expression means the speaker “acknowledges and shows respect to all dignitaries and VIPs present at an event without listing each one individually; it is a time-saving shorthand for the hierarchy of important guests”. The speaker is in effect simply representing an organisation — and all members of the organisation are as important, playing their part. In sport, the team scores: individuals do not. In sport (school sport, especially), let all protocol be observed – and respected. That will be a win for the school.
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