The most feared jaws in football have again snapped shut on human flesh. Renowned Uruguayan jerk Luis Su谩rez appeared to chomp the shoulder of Italy鈥檚 Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup match on Tuesday. The player鈥檚 latest chomp raises questions about sportsmanship. Namely, what kind of brain decides it is OK, in the course of athletic performance, to seize part of a competitor鈥檚 body between your teeth like a rabid pit bull?
The psychology of poor sportsmanship is something that generally comes up in the context of child athletes. Acting out on the field can be a sign that a kid doesn鈥檛 handle competition well, or hasn鈥檛 yet developed the cortical means to regulate his feelings. By the time you are a grown adult and a professional football player, though, athletic misbehaviour signals something else besides one鈥檚 presence at a way station on the path to moral maturity.
In adults who aren鈥檛 world class athletes, poor sportsmanship might indicate an anger issue like intermittent explosive disorder, or any condition-autism, ADHD-that impairs your understanding of social norms. Or you could just be a jerk.
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But according to Dr. Richard D. Ginsburg, a clinical psychologist and sports psychology consultant for Massachusetts General Hospital, the tantrums of professional players are often made of stronger stuff. 鈥淵ou have athletes who are highly driven to win, fiercely competitive, and who must increase their intensity in ways that involve physical contact with others,鈥� he says. And because they are doing all this in situations-like a World Cup match-that are highly visible and drenched with meaning, the adrenaline generated is tremendous. 鈥淎n intense amount of arousal is required,鈥� Ginsburg says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the moment. The media exposure. Learning how to harness your aggression in a way that鈥檚 effective and balanced is an art form for pro athletes. People don鈥檛 appreciate how hard it is.鈥�
Ginsburg, who has never met or treated Su谩rez, told me he was reluctant to make assumptions about the footballer鈥檚 character in particular. But as a general rule, he says that putting a player with poor impulse control in such a hypercharged context is like sprinkling your fireplace with gunpowder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the situation and it鈥檚 also who we鈥檙e dealing with,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese huge emotional outbursts can start to make a kind of sense.鈥�
Bad sportsmanship occasionally pays off, as when a player might hypothetically handle the ball off the line in a World Cup match against, say, Ghana. But Ginsburg notes that it would be hard to argue that Su谩rez鈥檚 more tooth-focused behaviour was somehow strategic. Though he wasn鈥檛 penalized for his light Italian snack, FIFA could choose to ban Su谩rez for the rest of the tournament.
Back in April 2013, when Su谩rez tenderized the arm of Chelsea鈥檚 Branislav Ivanovic, sports psychologist Dr. Thomas Fawcett echoed this interpretation, speculating that we鈥檇 witnessed something 鈥減rimitive鈥� and 鈥渟pontaneous.鈥� He that biting usually signalled frustration and that he suspected Su谩rez would bite again. Good call, Dr. Fawcett! Give that man a raise.
