Political correctness gone mad....

This is so ridiculous...

An Ottawa soccer league is working hard to crush the competitive spirit that naturally stems from team sporting activities. The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer League (for kids from ages four to 18) has implemented a new rule whereby any team that wins a game by more than five points will now lose the game. Take a moment to wrap your mind around that.

The rule replaces a five-point mercy rule that still gave the winning team a win, but discounted any points scored beyond the five-point differential. According to the league, the new rule is intended to dissuade huge point differentials and foster sportsmanship. In reality, it just takes us all one more step up the politically correct Coddle Scale that governs many education policies and now, apparently, team sports.

Losing because of winning may sound bizarre, but various forms of this rule -- and the rule itself -- are already at play in community and sporting leagues around Calgary. There is a five-point maximum differential in community soccer, whereby a 9-1 win is officially recorded as 6-1. In many basketball leagues, the public scoreboard is put to zero once a 40-point differential is reached. They still keep track of individual stats (points and fouls), but the game itself has been officially won. However, there are some Calgary schools that follow the bizarro rule whereby the winning team loses if the point differential reaches 40 points.

So it's not just them -- it's all of us. We've all bought into the idea that kids should never have to feel anything other than happiness. It's hardly the way to nurture the next generation of civic leaders, but it will undoubtedly maintain our reputation as the kinder, gentler nation.