Blowing the whistle
Last week, while quietly minding my manners on the basketball court, a referee called me for a technical foul. This was not the first time I have been called for a technical. I may have even deserved it. It also may not be the last time it happens. However, the referee made the wrong call and I felt the necessity to let him know about it.
It seems I am not the only person who tends to disagree with sports officials. Joe Paterno, the head football coach at Penn State University, had a referee hanging in effigy on his front door last week. Paterno did not admit to hanging the referee doll on the door, but he certainly did not deny it. This incident followed Paterno’s public criticism of officials on two other occasions during this football season.
Another prime example is Bobby Knight, the former basketball coach at Indiana University and current basketball coach at Texas Tech. Knight was and still is famous for his pressroom tirades. One of his best fell on a night when Knight was unhappy with the officiating in an Indiana game and decided to make a running commentary about fat, out-of-shape referees who could not keep up with college players. As an extra kicker, Knight panted as if he was the referee being described.
Sports fans love to blame the team’s troubles on the referees. Referees are the ones who miss a call that would have saved the game. Or they make calls that cost our teams the game.
Until they reach the professional level, officials are part-timers. According to the National Association of Sports Officials, high school officials make $10 to $75 for any given game. For a football official, that works out to an average of $12 an hour. For any sum, officials endure poor sportsmanship from players, coaches and fans. They suffer through all of it — the poor pay and sportsmanship milf— to be right 95 percent of the time.
I would love to be right 95 percent of the time. Do you know how often I go to the dictionary for help? Referees do not carry rules books with them on the field. I am able to use the backspace key any time. In officiating, only the professional league referees can use instant replay. Next time Paterno goes on television, he should give a percentage of how many plays he called correctly before drilling into another referee who made a higher number of correct calls.
Referees are regular people doing their job. They certainly are not in it for the money. They are out there because they enjoy it, despite our best efforts to make them despise it. As they say on the highway, “Give ‘em a break.”
Oh, and to the referee who called our game last week: You still made the wrong call.
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It seems I am not the only person who tends to disagree with sports officials. Joe Paterno, the head football coach at Penn State University, had a referee hanging in effigy on his front door last week. Paterno did not admit to hanging the referee doll on the door, but he certainly did not deny it. This incident followed Paterno’s public criticism of officials on two other occasions during this football season.
Another prime example is Bobby Knight, the former basketball coach at Indiana University and current basketball coach at Texas Tech. Knight was and still is famous for his pressroom tirades. One of his best fell on a night when Knight was unhappy with the officiating in an Indiana game and decided to make a running commentary about fat, out-of-shape referees who could not keep up with college players. As an extra kicker, Knight panted as if he was the referee being described.
Sports fans love to blame the team’s troubles on the referees. Referees are the ones who miss a call that would have saved the game. Or they make calls that cost our teams the game.
Until they reach the professional level, officials are part-timers. According to the National Association of Sports Officials, high school officials make $10 to $75 for any given game. For a football official, that works out to an average of $12 an hour. For any sum, officials endure poor sportsmanship from players, coaches and fans. They suffer through all of it — the poor pay and sportsmanship milf— to be right 95 percent of the time.
I would love to be right 95 percent of the time. Do you know how often I go to the dictionary for help? Referees do not carry rules books with them on the field. I am able to use the backspace key any time. In officiating, only the professional league referees can use instant replay. Next time Paterno goes on television, he should give a percentage of how many plays he called correctly before drilling into another referee who made a higher number of correct calls.
Referees are regular people doing their job. They certainly are not in it for the money. They are out there because they enjoy it, despite our best efforts to make them despise it. As they say on the highway, “Give ‘em a break.”
Oh, and to the referee who called our game last week: You still made the wrong call.
san fransisco shuttletours wiley x outdoor villa lighting Architectural Outdoor Lighting
posted by navin at 2:10 AM
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