One thing I never thought I would write a whole blog entry on, other than my chronic flatulence, is sports. Its not that I don't like sports or fail to watch them regularly, its more so I never had any reason to write on it, and I often don't know what I am talking about most the time concerning sporting issues. Thereby, a blog entry on sports was extremely improbable. I don't know how people are so knowledgeable in it, but I find myself quite impressed when people rattle off stats, who was traded where, and what sports star just got charged with possession of a firearm, DUI, or for exposing himself in public. Indeed, every time I sit in on a conversation, or more likely, since I spend a lot of time alone, eavesdrop in on a conversation, I feel like I might as well be sitting in on Mike Greenburg and Mike Golic. I am pretty clueless when it comes to such issues, and if I was invited in on a serious sports conversation, I would be the Dexter to the conversation as a whole and just murder it completely, by stupid, obvious comments which have no consequence to any particular subject or individual engaging in the discourse.
This is why the blogging medium is so great, because people can't tell me to shut up, or pull my underwear halfway up my back (I have custom made them to rip once they reach a certain height) when I blather on about nonsensical issues. I only regret that a blog needs a coherent subject, otherwise I would just keeping going about things like socks, air conditioning, stamp collecting, forest rangers and green sequin skirts. Not necessarily in that order. (Those topics might not be funny, but I challenged myself to write down the first subjects that come to mind. The last one kind of scares me.)
Because I don't know how to make a segue from green sequin skirts, to football officiating other than thinking that green sequin skirts on refs would be pretty stylish, I will just begin now, my thoughts on refereeing in the sport of football today.
It should be obvious to the casual observer that, me being reared in Seattle, may have a sort of pseudo-bitterness towards referees in sports, particularly football, due to Seattle's ill-fated visit to the Super Bowl a number of years ago against the Steelers. You couldn't be more wrong. I have a full-fledged bitterness towards referees in sports due to that. I recall a year after the disaster, I took a trip down to Mexico while in a equally ill-fated relationship with my accompanying counterpart. Anyways, we went inside a Jewelry store and after some conversation with the clerk, he asked us where we hailed from. I informed him of my Seattle grunge roots, to which he replied, "Wow, did you guys get screwed in the Super Bowl." I remind myself that he was trying to sell us merchandise, but the fact he even knew about the whole fiasco and arguments concerning the game, was pretty impressive to me. I didn't buy anything, but due to his declaration, I decided to skip his store later that night while on my crime spree.
Now, I am obviously not Nostradamus and, in fact, any quatrain I try to write turns somehow into a dirty limerick, so this obviously gives valuable insight into my psychic abilities. At any rate, I don't know, if the officiating was perfect, who would've won that game, the Steelers might have very well one, who knows? What I do know is that the final score was altered in some way by the terrible officiating. Perhaps its because of this I find myself sensitive and abusive when confronted with a bad call on my television or indeed on someone else's. Its almost to the degree it gets so frustrating to me that I want to turn off the game no matter what team its against, though obviously it is less upsetting if its against the opposition of the team I wish to be victorious. However, it doesn't stop me from making a mental note of it, and when it comes down to it, I would prefer a game without such terrible calls, despite who may benefit from them.
That's somewhat the problem. The consequences of such calls from the officials have the inherent power to impact a game, change the momentum and the overall tide whether it be ebbing or flowing. With such a huge responsibility, you would think those who officiate the games would be more scrutinized by those organizations over them, but this seems hardly to be the case. To have better officiating one would need to understand the consequences that arise from a bad call and make it equitable to the official. Years ago this would have been a tall order, but now because of the increase in technology integrated in every sport, I don't believe this to be a impossible undertaking and it is sorely needed.
At this point many officials can represent their mood, favoritism and death threats by the mob they have received in their calls, which at times seems to triumph over their professionalism. Indeed, quite recently I have seen more than a couple games where bad calls occurred, but the aftermath went beyond people just the crowd booing the official testifying to my point. Their was an official review in one case, in another case one of the coaches challenged and in all angles and replays, the final conclusion that everyone was waiting for seemed apparent. This was confirmed by the crowd and by the announcers, only to have the opposite chosen by the officials, which caused a uproar of sorts, enough to be talked about in a negative light by the narrators of the game, and sports casters after the game and score were finalized.
Do mistakes happen? Yes, of course they do, to say they don't would be a completely moronic position to take. Just look at my blog(s). I think every human has the right to err to some degree, and referees aren't excluded from that. Yet, there are errors and there are grievous errors, and I think it is the latter which upsets the general fan the most and should be subject to review and perhaps disciplinary action. However, in my view, a bad call doesn't have to concern a game changing call to require disciplinary action, but also those little nitpicking calls, like holding or illegal contact, which though such calls have their place, a lot of time seem silly. In fact, depending on the game, some of them get so overwhelming that you wish the damn refs would just let them play the game.
Lets not kid ourselves. Football is a rough sport, I think most people of sound mind will agree. To look over and examine conduct among players in the normal course of the game with a fine toothed comb, to me, is ridiculous. I believe, because of its physical and somewhat violent nature, you could find an infraction with and in every play if you wanted to. Therefore, this grants ample opportunity for favoritism to be represent. I most often see this "nitpicking" concerning holding and illegal contact calls. Again, it doesn't make such calls ridiculous, but there needs to be some sort of standard of force, duration, or hindrance displayed within such infraction in order for it to get called. Its football, not ballet.
Its getting to the point where you don't know if you can cheer for a touchdown anymore before its reviewed. It used to be, in simplistic terms, once that ball crossed over into the end zone, more or less, a touch down. Now, they need to maintain control throughout the play, which sounds great and pretty straightforward. However, after watching some games and this rule cited when pulling points away from teams, I don't find it as straightforward as much as I find it dependent on personal interpretation. All calls somewhat are based on that, but although well meaning, this rule has turned out to be ridiculous to many fans, myself included. Again, not the rule itself, but its application when an official review or challenge is sought.
Unfortunately, what I feel they don't call enough is personal fouls. Every game there is some moron who takes a swing at another player, despite the fact he is wearing a helmet. What damage can they possible do, I mean other than break their hand? In football don't you kind of need your hands, so what good can possibly come from that? Such incidents are broken up, but often not called. To me it not only seems so pointless because of all the protective gear, but also because a large portion of the game concerns hitting each other. It makes as much sense in football as it would in boxing. They should get called, not for damage they may cause or inflict, but simply for being an idiot.
Obviously there are referees that make great calls and thus I hope nobody concludes that officiating is worthless in my view. Certainly a number of calls are necessary and correct, but it always seem like the ones that have the most impact are the ones where the referee should see some kind of consequence for it. Perhaps they should go to some form of merit pay.
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