Bill Poehler, writer for the statesman journal says that officials are not getting paid enough to take this sort of abuse. The abuse he is referring to, you ask? While he was at a recent series of high school basketball tournament, he witnessed fans saying horrible things like:I hate you, baldy.
Go back home.
You need a towel to wipe your eyes?
Give your pay back.
That's terrible.
Knock it off.
That's terrible.
Get out of here.
He goes onto say:
It's always funny when someone sitting 100 feet away from the play thinks that they can see the outcome of the play better than the official 10 feet away.
Unless you're Superman, you can't.
The next time you think, maybe I'll yell, "Get in the game, blue," stop for a minute.
How would you like to get paid to go to a public event and constantly be screamed at?
It's not fun.
Listen Bill, I respect your sympathy for officials. Maybe you used to be a referee, maybe you hang out with them after work at your favorite pub, maybe you have a long list of refs complaining to you about these types of fans. However, in my humble opinion - yelling at the officials is part of the joys of being a passionate fan. We crave the right call, an accurate call, especially when rooting for our school, our team, or in some cases, a son or daughter's team to win. It's all part of our competitive nature. I agree, there are lines that can be crossed, and those lines would be yelling profanities, running onto the court or field to take matters into your own hands, or making threatning statements during or even after the game. To say things like you mentioned above is ok, and unless the ref has serious image problems, should be able to handle that type of abuse no matter how much money he or she is being paid.
1 comment:
Way more often than not, refs make the right call. It's that five percent that folks can't get over.
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