The Rule of Law

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the “rule of law.”

One of the great things about our country is that we are a nation ruled by law and not people. Very few people appreciate that as much as I, but I wonder if we have not been brainwashed into thinking that everything is about the law. I decided to write about this after a few games of football.

We bought several video games for the kids last Christmas. One of those games was FIFA ‘09 for PS3. We don’t normally enjoy sports games but Billy had played this one and raved about it. It’s hard to surprise him these days, so it was at the top of my list for him this year. He was absolutely right, the game is a blast. It is certainly the game we play the most. Others are more qualified to review the game for you, but I loved it and I think you will too.

Playing the game got me thinking about our obsession with rules in the U.S. It’s a football game – what we call soccer in the U.S. If you know the game well, you may see it differently than I do but to me soccer is a game that is ruled by people, not laws. Interestingly enough, soccer rules are actually referred to as laws. I know this complicates my argument, but hear me out for bit. Soccer officials make a lot of judgement calls – penalties, yellow and red cards, the offside rule (a player is only offside if he is “involved” in the play), and the timing of the match.

As we played match after match, the timing really struck me. I watch a bit of soccer on television too and I’ve always noticed the same thing. It is quite different than what we see in an American football game. American football is a game of inches and seconds – very judgment calls involved.

I thought about this for a couple weeks as we played and then I saw another football game in early January. This was an NFL playoff game – Ravens v. Titans. With just minutes left in the game, the officials missed a delay of game call in a very obvious way. If you don’t remember the play you can read about it <a href=”“http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/01/10/no-delay-of-game-call-hurts-the-titans/”“>here</a>. After the game, the huge debate that ensued about this play made me think once again about our obsession with rules. It is not my intent to debate the call itself here. I think anyone that understands the NFL delay-of-game rule would agree that the call was blown. The interesting thing to me is that so much energy be expended on the discussion. Are we so fascinated with the enforcement of the rules that we cannot enjoy the game?

Basketball strikes me as even worse. The clock counts down tenths of a second and the officials sometimes watch video replay to see if a player took a shot before time expired. Last weekend a small controversy erupted over a timeout that was not granted. Once again, it seems clear to me that the officials missed the call. Who cares? Bad for the kids on the team – of course. That’s the way it goes, no?

I am also not arguing that these games be changed. Not at all. My observations are not even so much about the games involved. Obviously, each game is different and should be regulated differently. I just wonder if the popularity of soccer in other countries is a result of a different perspective on life. Could it be that Americans are so fascinated with laws that we cannot enjoy a game?

As an aside, baseball is much more like soccer in my opinion because it is ruled by the umpires and judgement calls are a large part of the game. I might argue that this makes baseball the perfect game, but I’m not here to talk about that today.