Many of you that read this know that I am a basketball official. I officiate a full high school schedule, girls and boys, and a good number of small college men's games each season. Many of you also know that I often will defend officials while watching games on TV. There is so much about officiating basketball, or any sport for that matter, that the casual sports fan does not know. Advantage vs. Disadvantage, patient whistles, actually knowing what is a travel and what isn't, etc. All of these types of things lead casual fans to simply being wrong in their criticism of officials or in developing their opinions of a crew or how the game was officiated.
With that said, I want to move one step further. You will never hear me say that officials are perfect. I have missed tons of calls myself. It happens. But what I don't think people realize is the perspective that 99% of officials have as they are working games.
When I step out onto the court, I want to get every call right, keep it fair for both teams, work as hard at officiating as the players are playing. It is very important to me to do a good job, not necessarily in the eyes of the fans or coaches, because their perspectives are always skewed with a major bias. But in my mind, I want to feel confident that I've had a good game and done a good job. When I don't feel like I have done that, though, I get discouraged.
9 times out of 10, a good official knows when he/she has blatantly missed a call. Other times they make the best call they can, and spend the rest of the time wondering if it was the right call, until getting a chance to watch the game tape. And almost all officials at higher levels get frustrated with themselves when they miss a call, especially if the call is late in the game and ends up having an impact on a potential outcome. But this is where the fans, media, players, coaches and everyone else comes in to make the situation even worse.
The last couple nights in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, there have been some controversial calls at the end of games. Calls that, in the minds of people watching, possibly decide the outcome of the game. I would argue that no one call decides the outcome of the game, but that is a different discussion. But what I do want to address is the reaction that comes from so many people watching the game. They are all suddenly experts on the rules, on officiating, on how to officiate a certain play, what to look for, and everything else. And that's fine, everyone can have an opinion. What is not fine, is how that manifests into attacks on another human being.
Whether an official is making $3,000/game to work an NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament game or not, it doesn't mean that official should be attacked and targeted for missing a call. Believe me, if the call was missed, nobody feels worse about it than the official that made the call. These officials are not so arrogant that they block out reality. They will see, and they will know, if they have missed a call. And if they missed it, they will feel terrible. I know I would.
For some reason, there is an expectation by sports fans for officials to be perfect. Let me tell you something, it's not going to happen. Players will always miss shots, officials will always miss calls. But both groups are trying their best to limit how much that happens.
To summarize, there is a lot that goes into officiating that most fans, even above average fans, do not know. But what you should know is that these officials are out there doing their best, and feel terrible when they come up short. I know of officials losing sleep over a missed call late in a game. Despite how hard we try, we're human, and we're going to make mistakes. It would just be nice if people would understand that we'll beat ourselves up over it enough; we don't need the help of everyone on social media around the country to do the same.
Now this is not to say that you shouldn't root for your team and be passionate about your team. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a strong bias towards the Iowa Hawkeyes, and my view of officiating in Hawkeye games is viewed through that biased lens. But there is a difference between rooting for your team and belittling another person.
So next time you're watching a game and there is a big call that you may disagree with late in a game, think about how it would feel to be that official. Officials are human beings, with moms, dads, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, children, etc. Think about what it's like for them to go through the hateful and disrespectful comments, when the official was just trying to do his/her best. And hey, without the officials, these games don't happen.
