Shouting Down the Refs

I’ve never been one to complain about the calls. I might enjoy discussing a call from time to time but shouting down the referees has never been my style. To date I’ve never castigated any ref, whether he or she be calling my hockey games, my kids hockey, soccer,  baseball or basketball games, NHL games, Eagles hockey games, or CSU hockey games. Maybe I got started too late in life to where I had any opportunity to have the referees be a part of the sports I’ve been in or around. Jan Baby and I started out as skiers, no refs there. We moved on to windsurfing, no refs there. I didn’t hit hockey until I was forty seven years old (darn it!).

The one thing I always loved about sports was that they took a chaotic world and framed it in a set of finite, definable rules. Take away our officials, and the law is removed from the world of sports.
Anarchy would reign. Hockey fights would deteriorate into riots. Goonery would run rampant in basketball. Baseball games would stretch into infinity with endless arguments over balls and strikes. Football would be unwatchable, a veritable orgy of violent destruction.

– Iceref

Sure, I’ve seen others go off on the refs and I’ve seen my share of bad calls, questionable calls and good calls too. One person explains it this way; “If the players aren’t perfect and make mistakes, how can they then criticize the referees for not being perfect?” Referees have to deal with the players, deal with the parents, deal with the coaches, they are the bad guy no matter what happens and people hate them just because they can. Apparently there are no “fans” of the officials who in the vast majority of cases are just trying to be objective.

There are good refs and bad refs. Just like the various levels found in hockey, there are skill levels in the reffing business. Teenagers starting out generally find themselves reffing the mite and squirt games. PeeWees, Bantams and Midgets get more experienced and skilled refs. What kind of refs do you think the Eagles or the Avalanche hockey teams get? Have you ever hear or perhaps been one of the parents who bemoans the refs abilities at a recreational hockey game? C’mon, give ‘em a break. “Didn’t you see that?!” they yell. Heck, I’m always asking the person next to me what happened. As it turns out I don’t see everything concurrently going on in the game; neither do the refs. Who would fault them for such a thing? Missed calls, non calls and bad calls are all part of the sport and you gotta embrace those facts.

I’ve heard it said that “the referee’s best friend is a moving puck”. Overheard from the referee at a PeeWee game: “Remember, Kid..when that puck drops, you and I will be the only two sane people in this rink.”

Read more»

Bookmark It

Hide Sites