Real Salt Lake: Give credit for taking the high road

Real Salt Lake have suspended head coach Mike Petke for two weeks without pay after his outburst in last week’s Leagues Cup. They should be praised for taking the high road.

In professional sport, it can often seem like winning is everything. The pursuit of success is relentless, and it often comes at the expense of everything else. Just look at the drugs culture in cycling, the diving culture in football, the desire to cheat in almost top-level sport.

Sadly, this degrades the value of morality. Being a sportsman is seen as less important as being a winner, either on an individual basis or a collective one. As long as you win, it is seen as acceptable. The ends justify the means, somewhat.

However, this week, we were presented with a wonderful example of an organisation taking the opposite tack. Instead of undertaking the ruthless pursuit of victory, they chose to act morally, with character, and respectfully of the sport and those within it.

After his rather aggressive behaviour towards officials in last week’s Leagues Cup loss to Tigres UANL, Real Salt Lake head coach Mike Petke was suspended for two weeks by his own club. In a strong-worded statement, Real Salt Lake said:

"“We hold everyone in our organization — particularly the leadership — to the highest standards and expect them to treat everyone with dignity and respect. We have the utmost respect for the referees, PRO and Major League Soccer and will be working with the League to ensure that everyone in our organization treats all referees, players, coaches and fans with the dignity, respect, civility and professionalism that is consistent with our values.”"

"“Although we appreciate Coach Petke’s passion and drive to win, it should never come at the expense of those values. We support and agree with the League’s decision on this matter. … As a club we apologize to our fans for this incident and going forward will continue to demand that all staff adhere to the highest personal standards, without excuse.”"

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Petke is suspended for two MLS matches, RSL have fined their head coach $25,000, suspended him from all fooutball activities for two weeks without pay, and will demand that he attends anger management classes, as well as issuing written apologies to both the league and the individual referees.

It may seem obvious that a club comes down hard on their manager when they verbally abuse a referee, as Petke did in his fit of rage, but many teams might not have been so focused on the morals of those that work for them when they have a playoff push looming.

Suspending Petke from all activities for two weeks will surely setback Real Salt Lake as they look to make a late-season surge up the Western Conference. And yet, that is precisely what they are doing. RSL should be praised for their reaction to Petke’s behaviour. They were not soft. They were just, firm, and even acted in self-detriment, prioritising sportsmanship over success.

That is rare in sport. And it is refreshing to see. Hopefully, in the future, more individuals and clubs will follow suit.