SAN ANTONIO — Former Texas Tech head football coach Spike Dykes (R.I.P.) once told me that you can call holding on every snap of the football.
He's right, you know. The game-determining play at the Super Bowl a few weeks ago in Arizona came down to a holding call. Was it? Was it not? Whatever the answer, the rest is now history.
I tweeted after that holding call – which helped the Kansas City Chiefs secure Super Bowl LVII – that the refs weren't the story until they suddenly were. Eagles fans all around the country were burning couches, despairing over the defeat. KC fans hailed it as absolutely, 100% the right call. Even Philadelphia defensive back James Bradberry said the flag was warranted.
I say all that to say that I'm here to defend the officials. There, I said it.
Now, they know what they are signing up for. It's part of their training for all I know. But is there another job in the world, outside of being an athlete or the commander-in-chief, that is more overly criticized than being the man or woman with the whistle?
Let's break it down.
NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL/MLS officials are taken to task by studio analysts and social media the minute the game clock hits zero, and that's even after the play-by-play and color analyst broadcasters have taken their turns.
Those folks do offer credit when the call is right. The great Troy Aikman has at many times pointed out when refs are correct. But Aikman has also noted he's more often called out, in his opinion, about the missed calls.
Again, officials know what they sign up for at the professional level, and they're well-compensated for their efforts (or perceived lack thereof depending on which fans you ask, especially those on the losing end). My favorites are the fans who complain about officiating as they celebrate the win. Sometimes I want to explain to those people a thing or three about how life works.
But I digress. They say pro drafts are an inexact science. There is nothing, trust me, more inexact in sports than trying to officiate live game action. Has it unfairly determined the outcomes of games by the letter of rulebook law? I bet it's happened more times than any of us could ever count. It is what it is in the end.
NCAA officials might even take more heat than their counterparts in the pros. The passion for college sports in this country borders on concerning at times. The calls are based on judgement, but there's really more to it than that. You know how easy it is for all of us armchair refs to make calls from the stands or the recliner with the benefit of slow-motion replay?
Do we think we can do better? I've covered countless college sports events in the last quarter-century and thought, "What did this person ever do to you to deserve the tongue-lashing you just delivered?" (I'm guilty as charged from my own college days.)
Officials obviously enjoy the game to some extent, or they wouldn't be out there. Is there any ref who will ever be on anyone's Christmas card list? No. Never ever ever. Being an official is living the judgement-sports life. They sit in judgement of others, and half the time they are wrong, according to us, and honestly, probably according to them.
And don't get me started on high school officiating. Thank goodness for bands at football games, and stands that are typically back far enough that comments aren't entirely within earshot.
But basketball, baseball and softball? That's another ballgame entirely. The way parents and fans ride the officials gets out of control sometimes. It's the point of exhausting, to be honest. I'm not privy to Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO) paychecks, but they must be healthy enough that those folks are willing to put up with the verbal abuse. Coaches are enough, I'm starting to think, and they should be able to fight for their team or complain about the most recent call.
But the people that pay to get in? Why can't any call be the right call, even for the fan base that it goes against? I feel sorry for the people who wear the stripes. Sports is emotional, I get it, but sometimes enough is enough. Last year the public address announcer at a Clemens High School softball game half jokingly, half seriously announced that TASO was having shortage issues, and that since so many in the stands know what the right call is, they'd love to have you! I thought that was well-played.
There will never be a perfectly officiated game. There's never a perfectly played game by athletes. Never has, and there never will be. Maybe if we spent more time passing judgement on who our favorite didn't play, we'd feel better about things.
It is so easy to blame the refs. It's second nature to us. We're able to do it by default, actually. We're preprogrammed to blame the zebras for our teams' faults. Do officials likely miss more than they make. There's no question about that. It's sports. No facet of it is anywhere near being a well-oiled machine, athletes or refs. They fail more than they succeed. I do. Don't you? It's just that their mistakes are more magnified than ours. But fights on the field? Death threats, on occasion? We've got to be much better than that, and it's not that difficult.
Officials sign up for the job, but do they sign up for the verbal abuse? Not directly, I'd say, because the fans/parents bring that aspect to the fight. Every parent wants their kid to be a star – the star – and there's nothing wrong with that. But if we're able to confront the fact that not every single part of the game – of any game you attend – is an exact science, we'll all be better off.
Give 'em a break; a small one, if anything. They're gonna miss the next call. Or maybe they just might correctly call the next one—the one you're hoping for.
