Referee Behavior - Policing the Police
| 18
|
"Do you need glasses?"
"How could you possibly make that call?"
Let's face it - a referee's job is a thankless one. How many of us go to work each day in front of thousands of people who hate and jeer us? How many of us work beside huge athletes who try to intimidate us into seeing things their way? How many of us get blasted in the papers and on TV for a single mistake and never recognized for being correct?
Public school teachers, you can put your hands down.
Being a referee isn't easy, but that does not excuse the behavior of officials in football, basketball and baseball over the last eight months. For whatever reason, there has been a rash of deplorable actions by umpires and referees toward athletes during the course of games.
- NBA referee Joey Crawford ejected Tim Duncan during a game against the Dallas Mavericks after Duncan laughed on the bench about one of Crawford's calls. As Duncan left the floor, Crawford allegedly shouted, "Do you want to fight?"
- MLB umpire Mike Winters provoked a reaction from San Diego outfielder Milton Bradley about a moment earlier in the game when Bradley disagreed with a strike call made by another umpire. After Winters called Bradley a name, the outfielder injured his knee during the ensuing argument and missed the Padres' playoff game against the Colorado Rockies.
- NFL linesmen Phil McKinnely allegedly called Baltimore Ravens cornerback Samari Rolle "boy" during an argument over penalties issued during Monday night's game against the New England Patriots.
In each of these situations, it seems that game officials took the low road with the athletes they are paid to control and protect. In the first two cases, the officials were suspended for their actions. The NFL is currently reviewing Rolle's allegations against McKinnely.
Umpires and referees today seem to be caught in a Catch-22. On one hand, fans do not want them to be the focus of the game. We do not want them to eject players unnecessarily or make calls that affect the outcome. We expect them to take the verbal abuse they get from managers, players and us the fans and turn the other cheek.
On the other hand, we expect them to have authority and control over the proceedings. How can a referee be considered in control when he takes a verbal undressing and cannot respond in kind? How many times can a person be berated before responding?
In many ways, referees are like cops. There are the obvious connections - they enforce the rules, they protect people from rule-breakers, they must make quick decisions about right and wrong, and they are rarely thanked for doing their job.
The are also similar in the type of person it takes to do that job. The best referees tend to be arrogant, combative and cocky. There is not an NBA referee more respected than Steve Javie, but the man walks around like his stuff doesn't smell. There is a reason he is good at his job and it has as much to do with his personality as it does his knowledge of the rules.
The problem with this personality trait, however, is that it can easily explode into something that should not be. While it is clearly an exaggeration to compare a police beating to a referee calling a player "boy," the two events originate from the same place. It is an abuse of power.
We give our police men and women the tools they need to protect us, but we expect them to only use those tools in the most extreme of circumstances. We know they face verbal and the threat of physical assault in their daily work, but we do not condone the use of excessive force because of it.
The same is true of professional sports officials. They have the ability to enforce the rules of the game in a variety of manners, but we expect them to avoid using these abilities if at all possible. We know that players say ridiculous and insulting things to referees during the course of a game, but we expect officials to be above responding back in the same manner.
It seems that more and more game officials are failing to live up to this lofty standard.
