Beat the refs

Who among us hasn’t yelled at a referee, an umpire or a television, for that matter? Surely, we’re all guilty.

In fact, not only do we root for our teams, but we root against the other team and the officials charged with enforcing the rules of the game.It’s almost a pastime and can even be fun as long as we’re playing within the confines of fun and games.

We’ve all been to little league games where parents yell at the umpires as if their life savings is on the line. Never mind that littleJohnny can’t swing the bat without falling over or that the rest of us sit in agony watching a group of nine-year-olds try to figure out which base to run to as if it were quantum physics. Never mind all of that. These parents think that the part-time-I-just-want-to-give-back-to-my-community-and-be-paid-with-a-free-corn-dog-umpires should be as good as those in the major leagues.

But lately, jeering at referees and other officials has reached new heights. In professional sports, referees are being called out publicly by players and coaches for calls they either made or failed to make, which (in the players’ minds) cost one team the game. Further adding to the trend, some referee associations are publicly apologizing for missed calls at critical moments in games.

 

continue reading »