Should America lay off more referees? – The KHL (Russian Hockey League) banned a referee for life after making an incorrect call

It’s an extremely satisfying story. I can’t tell you how happy I would be to know that an NFL referee who called bullshit pass interference against my Indianapolis Colts was greeted with a “BANNED FOR LIFE” notice in his locker after the game. When I first saw this story, I thought, “Hell, yes. We need these standards in American sports. »

Almost all the Twitter reactions I’ve seen on this subject are along these lines. Which makes sense. Sports fans despise referees. There is something incredibly frustrating about being wronged by a referee. Of all things in the world, bad references could bring out the worst in me as a person. I wouldn’t dare reveal the thoughts that come to mind in the seconds after a referee throws a late flag for a holding penalty against a team I bet money on.

However, I fear that when it comes to holding referees accountable, it is a “be careful what you wish for” situation. Maybe I’m completely off base with this. Even if I have references extremely responsible is causing serious problems, maybe it’s better to try anything at all than continue to let the referees slide for their incompetence.

But refereeing sports is difficult. No official in the world, in any sport, will answer every decision. The best you can do is make yourself as invisible as possible and cross your fingers that you’re not faced with 50/50 judgment that’s going to infuriate both fan bases equally, no matter what you call it.

For this reason, more than ever, no one wants to be a referee. We are currently facing a shortage of officials in youth sports across the country. Demand exceeds supply. Part of that is because these 11-year-old travel teams play twice as many games per season as they did more than 20 years ago. Another part has to do with parents traveling with their 11-year-old child. __ games WAY too seriously. Even at $50 cash for a 7 inning baseball game, for so many people it’s just not worth it.

Obviously, officiating in youth sports is a very different animal from professional sports. In youth sports, it’s just you and your partner. There are no replays to save you. You are forced to make decisions on the spot, and whatever you decide in the moment constitutes the law. But good and competent public servants have to start somewhere. And right now, becoming a youth sports official is less appealing than ever.

My point is that I’m afraid of having unrealistic expectations of public servants. I’m afraid we don’t know how good we have it. If we filled the KHL and started firing refs for making bad calls, those refs will be replaced with refs who were previously deemed less qualified than the ones we ran out of town.

Or maybe we don’t fire these referees right away. One idea I always see floating around is that we should force referees to stand on a podium and explain themselves after the match. Athletes are obliged to do it. Same with coaches. Why wouldn’t the referees do it too? Make them face the music like everyone else.

Well, if we do that, we find ourselves in a situation where the name and face of that referee are made EXTREMELY public. Much more public than they already were. I don’t know of many groups of people who would like to have a vendetta against me any less than angry sports fans. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe these refs could use a little kick in the pants. Perhaps if those in charge know that a mistake has serious consequences, they will pull themselves together and never issue an appeal again.

On the other hand…maybe that makes being a referee even less attractive…and the more we scare people, the smaller the pool of qualified officials. The fewer people who want to become officials, the worse the officiating is at all levels. If we start sending these referees out to the wolves to take them down every time they make a mistake, no one will want to do that job. I’m just not sure you can force civil servants to become better under the threat of punishment.

However, as with most things, the answer to this problem is almost certainly money. If we paid them more money, it would attract more intelligent humans to become referees as a profession. I can tell you with certainty that when I umpired youth baseball, it was the officials who did it for money who were the best. They just want to know the rules so they can do their job properly, be as invisible as possible, and get away with a paycheck. It’s the people who want to become officials because they want to be involved in the game that we need to be wary of. The less money you pay to officials, the more you will get.

But realistically…do we really think America’s professional sports leagues are going to open the checkbook to better referees? Of course not. Why would they? Bad calls don’t deter fans from tuning in. If anything, bad calls only stir up more controversy. More controversy means more conversations. More conversations means more eyes on sports.

We could always institute more video replay reviews. But even that doesn’t solve anything All. Not all calls are as simple as: “Did the receiver reach two feet inbounds?”

I’m not even sure what I’m advocating at this point. I guess I’m advocating more money. We should pay public servants enough money to take their jobs as seriously as possible. But I also know that we will never achieve perfect refereeing in sport. If a referee receives a call Really fake, like in the case of this KHL referee, so maybe he deserves to be fired. But I see so many sports fans out for blood every time a call is directed against their team. And if we start firing everyone responsible for appealing to appease the masses, we’re going to find ourselves in an even worse situation than we already have.