I said I wasn't going to get into this, but...
There is a VAST professional, ethical, and moral difference between not giving 100% because you're exercising some sportsmanship and not selfishly running up a score on another team, and not giving 100% because you're "bored" or you just don't think the teams' level of play is worth your full effort.
Speaking of turning things around, would you tell players it's not worth their full concentration and effort on the field if they feel the officiating is not up to par? Do you think that attitude would make the game better, or worse?
When players get sloppy, it takes excellent officiating to bring them in check and keep the game safe, clean, and fair.
When officials get sloppy, it takes excellent maturity on the part of the players to keep their heads in the game and control themselves.
When players AND officials get sloppy, risks are taken, frustration builds, tempers flare, incidents that could have been addressed with verbal warnings snowball into red cards, and people get hurt. It only takes an instant to end a player's season, but sometimes the buildup to that instant is a game-long progression, with plenty of opportunities for intervention.
Granted, we all encounter situations that make it harder to put 100% into our performance, especially when people around us are obviously not. Our surroundings have a definite effect on our mindset, and it's hard sometimes to get geared up to give our best effort. A professional, however, realizes this--and takes deliberate mental steps to make sure he or she is doing a good job regardless of the surrounding situation, rather than making the excuse that if others are sloppy, he/she might as well be too.
