Come On Ref! - India Goss

You're at a (insert your favorite sport here) game. Your favorite team is up against the leading team in the nation. If your team wins, they get into the playoffs. You are sitting on the bleachers with popcorn and soda, enjoying the fans screaming around you and the anticipation of the latest time-out. The band plays your team’s theme song and the announcer continues to shout out statistics and MVPs. Thirty seconds are left on the clock and your team is a point away from the big win. Players are released from their time-out session. One more play can be made. The play starts then… wait… what?! Someone blows a whistle. You sit in great agony as you hope that the call is on the opposing team. The call stands against your team. The crowd then roars with the common, “BOOOO! COME ON REF!”
Now I know I’m not the most sports-worthy writer in my intro into journalism class. There are many other people that could do a better job. But I do know this, whether your team is losing or winning, the referees of any sport gets blamed for making a bad call, even if your team just messed up and rightfully deserves the call on the field, the ref is the one who made the mistake. I believe there are three instances in which the referees are publicly noticed by everyone in the stadium.

1. The obvious mistake
This is the instance in which the official or referee really does make a mistake. In this case the poor men in zebra costumes are humiliated by everyone’s “Boos” and “What were you thinking?” calls from their seats. This instance is usually caused if no one was really traveling, that was so holding or duh, that was NOT a strike. Even if the referee tripped wrong or made a funny signal with his hands or body, if the reputation of the referee has been bad throughout the game, the ref will soon be humiliated by laughs and whistles from the crazy fans.

2. The “good” call
In this instance, the official does make the right call (which is, actually, the majority of the time). When officials go to sleep at night they dream of a place where people shout out, “Good for the official!” I mean, being a referee/official is a hard job. Getting the right call in there a couple times should be praised by the judgmental audience. The crowd roars with “Yay!” and “Good job ref!” even if the call is against their team. The official bows with happiness and skips back to his job. Well, only in Referee Heaven.
No, but really, even if the official makes the right call, the crowd is furious and steam fires through their ears. Usually this type of hatred comes at the end of a close game where the official has the power to either let your team win, or lose. If they choose that your team has better sportsmanship and can take the call against them (as they usually do) the onlookers are… well let’s just say VERY angry. Sayings like “What game are you playin’ ref?” the occasional “What the &%*@ are you doin’ ref?”or “Is this your first day ref?” are constantly heard. In this situation the refs must be thinking, “These people are idiots.”
Are we really idiots? Or are those prison escapers the stupid idiots making the wrong calls against OUR team?

3. The really good call
In this case, the official does the right thing in the eyes of the crowd (a.k.a. the official makes the call in favor of the home team) and, therefore, gets praised for it. The fans scream and yell with happiness. Now, the official shows no sign of being content with his good call. He doesn’t show unsportsmanlike conduct by raising his hands in the air asking for the crowd’s cheers and approval. Nor does he put his hand up against his ear acting like he can’t hear the screaming that is obviously loud enough for the whole town to hear. In this situation, the ref is the humble man in a silly uniform that, in this rare case, is getting approval for doing his job.

In these three situations refs find themselves in, it would be good to meditate on our reactions to their calls. Why do we hate on a man who is just doing his job? After all, hasn’t he come, taking time out of his life, to give us the entertainment that without him would not exist? Should we not be thanking this man who has come fully aware of what the crowd may say or even do to him? Well, I leave this in your hands to figure out for yourself. But think about this… maybe next time we could show our support to these underappreciated refs by, not necessarily cheering them on, but just by keeping quiet when a call against our team is made.
I have the tendency to be “mean” to the ref with boo’s when the call was clearly not what he claims it was. But he is just doing his job. And how would we feel if every time we made a mistake (or even if we didn’t actually make a mistake) in our job people booed us, told us to get out of the building or threw things at us? .
In the end, the saying holds true… “An official is only as good as his last call.” So next time you’re sitting in your stellar seats, sipping a cold coca-cola, enjoying the game you’re attending and then a serious disturbance whistles at your team, think twice about imagining the ref shot down then and there. Even if you don’t think it at this moment in your life, you’ll be happy he’s alive in the minute time span it takes to call a foul on the opposing team.