College Football Highlights

Give The Football Refs A Break

More and more, when I watch college football, it seems that the refs just can’t win.  Don’t get me wrong, I see them miss calls.  But it seems that there is getting to be so much focus on showing missed calls on tv and for fans to abuse the refs.

Look at the recent suspension of one SEC officiating crew after calls during the UGA-LSU game and the Florida-Arkansas game.  Fans from Georgia and Arkansas not only sent hate emails, but called the home phones of officials with unbelievable messages accusing the refs of all sorts of things.  From being on the take, to having gambling problems, even to deliberately attempting to affect the score.

And it’s the first time that I can recall a crew being suspended although I have seen equally bad or missed calls each and every week from the refs.  Why this particular crew in this particular situation?

I heard recently that ESPN had something like 25 cameras at a game for a recent Monday Night NFL football game.  I mean with that type of scrutiny, the officials don’t really have a chance.  They are not perfect and there will always be missed calls.  But now it is like the media and the fans are trying to highlight any missed call and screaming bloody murder.

If you have never officiated a sporting event at least at the high school level, you need to think twice before you accuse an official of deliberate wrong doing.  It is an extremely demanding job.  Now I am not condoning accepting bad officiating.  I think that the conferences in college football do need to monitor, critique, and hold the refs accountable.  But what I have seen recently is inconsistency and reacting to media and fans on the part of the conferences.  Not a logical and consistent policy to improve officiating.

And I have also seen increased ugliness from football fans.  Now if you paid your money for a ticket and want to yell at or boo the refs, I think that is your right.  But to hunt them down after the game and send hate emails and voice mails is going way over the line in my humble opinion.  In what scenario is this behavior that we should condone?

I’ve done a little coaching myself and have had many conversations with refs on the sidelines where they would admit that they missed one or didn’t see the call as they should have.  And I have seen some really bad officiating at times.  But at the high school and lower levels, I always wondered what we adults thought we were teaching the kids by some of the bad behavior towards refs that I saw.

Now let me wrap up by saying again, that I don’t think that bad officiating should just be tolerated without attempting to fix the problem.  I think that those responsible should consistently and fairly monitor and regulate officials.  And, rather than just putting in a suspension in reaction to media attention, put in policies for consistent punishment with published criteria.

And I think that fans should give refs a break and consider all the correct calls that they make in split second decisions during the many, many games that they call.  And let’s remember, it is just a game.

College Football Highlights