Top 5 Fears in Flag Football
What Teams and Players Actually fear most

What are the real fears of playing flag football - broken bones, ligament damage, flesh wounds and maybe a busted ego from time to time?  Nope.  Injuries and busted egos are just part of the game and we accept them for what they are and continue to play.  However, there are some fears that many of us cannot over come no matter how hard we try. 

Here are the MCFFU's top 5 fears in flag football for teams, coaches and players.

Metathesiophobia:  Perhaps the biggest fear in all of flag is the fear of change.  Changing organizations, changing leagues, changing rules, changing QB’s, changing teams, changing styles, changing team colors, changing jersey numbers, changing your lucky socks; the list goes on.  Nobody likes change unless they can see how they benefit directly.

Now it’s not change itself that has so many scared, it’s actually the possibility of things being worse than before that strikes fear in some of us.  So rather than take any chances we choose to remain status quo and hope that things will get better. 

Everything changes; the NFL, NHL and NBA all changed their rules to increase scoring.  MBL made rules that benefited the hitter rather than the pitcher because “Chicks dig the long ball.”  The point is every succesful organization no matter how small or large recognizes the need for change to advance their product and remain competitive in an ever-changing society.  Life is about progression and how can you progress without accepting change?

The only way flag will advance as a whole is to change, because doing the same things that have been done before will only give us what we already have and expecting anything more for doing the same thing or what has been done before is insanity.  But like they say, how can you find out if things can be better if you are never willing to except change? 

It is the nature of a man as he grows older …….to protest against change, particularly change for the better.  – John Steinbeck

Nomatophobia:  The fear of names; team names is highly over-rated.  The mere sound of a team’s name will have some kicking and screaming for tournament directors to adjust the schedules and do recounts on seedings.  Everyone talks a good game about loving competition and seeking out the best on message boards or during general conversation – don’t believe one word of it.  The idea of facing a team with a winning reputation or a successful history against them can cause some grown men to experience severe anxiety attacks and high blood pressure.

Conversely, when competing against new opponents with no prior history or that they have no knowledge of (let’s say a team called Joe’s Pub from South Dakota) teams will generally display no fear.  This is because do the fact that they have never heard of this team means that team must be inferior.  Hell, just coming from some states such as South Dakota ensures some teams of an automatic win.  Take a top team, change their name on the schedule and not only will teams not complain but they will actually play a better game.  Top names defeat weak-minded teams before the first pass is ever thrown.

Atychiphobia:  The fear of failure will keep teams from moving up to a more competitive level, competing short-handed and participating in major tournaments.  As is with everything, the greater the risk the greater the reward.  A team will get more satisfaction from defeating a superior team they had no chance of defeating rather than a weaker opponent.  But more often than not, rather than risk possible failure, they’d rather play that inferior team to help give them confidence or an ego boost early in a touranment. 

Teams fear of failure is usually triggered by (Bracknaphobia – the fear of tournament brackets), which stems from a team having the feeling they may not advance as far as they think they should in a tournament because of nomatophobia – can get kinda confusing, huh?  Well, if you can’t beat a team in the first round, you can’t beat them in the later rounds – and if you could, why are you concerned when you play them?

Badcallaphobia – Is the fear of a bad call in a tournament that may cost you a game.  This is often related to a bad ref or a ref who does not know the rules.  Granted, bad refs hurt any tournament or league. However, a ref missing a judgment call is to be expected; its how he/she saw it.  Now a ref calling a WR for traveling or double dribbling is a completely different story.

But let’s be clear, for one there are NO professional flag refs anywhere in the world.  Secondly, bad calls are part of ANY game or sport that has officiating.  Watching the NFL on Sunday’s WITH instant replay and bad calls still occur and they do it for a living and have technology to help. 

Refs don’t expect teams to play a perfect game, no drop pass, no bad play calls, no missed flags, etc. so why do we expect them to?   A judgment call is just that so keep playing and don’t use that as an excuse as to why you loss.  Because with every call made, there will be one team that is happy and one team upset.

Outtogetmenaphobia:  Is the fear that every tournament director, ref and flag organization is conspiring against you.  East coast teams don’t like West coast directors, West coast teams don’t like East coast refs, this ref is out to get us because he made this call, that ref don’t like us because of this and that ref don’t like us because of that.

Now, if this is proven and you continue to play with that organization then that is on you.  But overall, no one is out to get you or your team and no one is conspiring against you or your team because you are that good.

This phobia is normally due to oversized egos and a team (or person) believing they are supposed to advance or win because of their name and past history.  Outtogetmenaphobia is a personal phobia that can only be dealt with from within; like with Yoga or some other form of advanced meditation - try it.  

There are several other phobias such as Dontwannapayearlynaphobia, (Symptoms found in teams who follow the pack, rather than lead) Trustnobodynewnaphobia (Usually had by older directors, teams and players) and Cantplayshorthandednaphobia (Symptoms found in teams who need security in numbers to compete ).  

All of which are extremely contagious and can be prevented by avoid those who have these phobias or being open-minded about a few things that just may make things better for you and your team.