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Call it straight, ref

Brandon Goldner
The Commuter

Monday, April 13, 2009

Brandon Goldner
Brandon Goldner

For those of us who’ve played organized sports, we know that there are certain things about the game that we can always control. Whether or not we hit our free throws, being able to tell whether to throw to second or home, or choosing between a cut to the inside and a break to skirt the sidelines are all under our power.

But one aspect of most organized team sports that the players have no control over, the officiating – at turns that may or may not have any logic behind its pattern – leave both participant and spectator jubilated, frustrated or puzzled.

Officiating is an important and indispensable aspect of sport. I understand how difficult it is to be under such responsibility and pressure, but I would plea but two requests for any referee, judge, or umpire: Call it fair, and call it safe.

The first is obvious. What you would decide for one team or participant, you should be prepared to call in kind for another.

To not do so is damaging. It’s damaging for the participants, and its damaging for the fans who spend good money either on tickets or on merchandise supporting their favorite team. It makes people feel uneasy. It’s difficult enough to be able to accept that, for even the most expert official, there is always going to be a judgment made on whether or not something occurred. And maybe this is part of what makes the game just a bit more unpredictable. Maybe it adds to the suspense.

But what doesn’t add to the game is giving an athlete privilege over another for any other reason beside what is directly relevant to any given play. It isn’t right to let LeBron James crab dribble his way down the lane and taking four steps while carrying the ball, and it’s doubly wrong for a community-based, pay-to-play league to allow its organizer to walk all over you because he’s in charge of hiring the referees. We’ve seen it happen at all levels.

But what’s even more important than calling a consistent game is to call a game that allows for the participants a reasonable level of safety. While being mindful of the inherent and unavoidable risks of sports, every person must be afforded the simple comfort of having a set precedent against unsafe play.

This is to say that if the referees begin the game by calling unsafe fouls, the chance of another such foul occurring later have considerably lessened.

In basketball, you only get a certain number of fouls before you are disqualified from the game. If a player knows this, and knows that you are not allowed to create an unsafe playing environment, than the game is opened up for both more scoring and for a less risky contest.

I recently played basketball in an environment which should have an interest in keeping me as safe as possible. A reputable company owned the building, and the game itself was officiated by two referees. Being that it had been quite a number of months since my last organized game, I told my teammates that I wouldn’t shoot much, but that I would be aggressive, get to the basket, and try to draw as many fouls as possible.

My plan would have worked, had it not been for one thing: The officiating stank.

Granted, they passed the test of consistency, in that they consistently let either team throw a body on another player without so much as a stern look.

People were pushed in midair – no foul called. A man was raked across the arm as he shot – no foul called. I caught a guy on wrist as he shot – no foul called.

Until, quickly, I raised my hand and yelled, “foul, foul, foul,” before the guy I’d hit had even a chance to hit the ground.

I guess I was too used to playing streetball, where the defense called their own fouls.

But most unfair of all was that, for all of my effort, I was rewarded with no fewer than three hacks across my arm as I shot, six or seven mid-air shoves that caused me to hit the ground, and a four-inch wide swath of gym-burn running nearly the length of my forearm. And for the one foul called, which, in all truth, was not really a foul at all, I was at a lack to find good reason for its assessment other than, perhaps, the officials didn’t have the best look at the play. (I apologized to the player, telling him “that was no foul.” He gritted an expletive, but gave me a hardy handshake and a smile after the game).

At the pro level, the players are protected because they sell seats – injury to a star player means a loss of revenue – and because to not do so would be an outrage to its nationally televised audience.

In college, they’re called because many of the players are getting ready for the pro leagues.

In high school, they’re called because the parents in the stands care for their kids.

But apparently, when you pay money to participate in an organized league, there are no eyes watching you, no investment to protect, and no incentive to keep you healthy beside the 80 or so dollars you pay once every three months. And ignoring the fouls may very well keep the games at a brisk enough pace for one to be scheduled every hour on the same court.

I implore the organizers of such leagues to reconsider how they train their officials, and for the officials themselves to have a heart and give the benefit of the doubt to keeping people safe. If it were themselves that were being put at risk due to a lack of officiating, we’re pretty sure that they, too, would take issue with being kept in harm’s way when it was avoidable.

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