This past week, the Pedowitz Report was released, which was an intensive look at refereeing in the NBA. Commissioner David Stern was desperate to renew the faith of his fans in the NBA after the Tim Donaghy betting scandal, so he hired a bunch of overpaid lawyers and paid them millions to do a report on the refereeing in the NBA. There are just a couple problems with Stern’s thinking on this one: the majority of basketball fans are already convinced that there are biases with refereeing in the NBA, and the minority are not going to waste time reading a 133 page report from some people paid by Stern to say what he wanted them to. What the Tim Donaghy scandal did was only validate what thousands of fans had already been thinking. The simple matter of fact is that whenever there is a questionable call that impacts a game, Tim Donaghy will pop into our heads kind of like E.T. does when we see Reese’s Pieces. (What? That doesn’t happen to you? Me neither…) 

Referees, often compared with zebras, are people too.

The problems in officiating are universal and run through all sports. We see shoddy officiating in the NFL, college sports, and even the Olympics. What always gets us is when after a game where a questionable call has been made we’re told that “the rules are open for interpretation.” I hate that! I want to throw my shoe at the T.V. when I here that! Rules are rules, aren’t they? So the rules are open for interpretation, which I’ve grown to be fine with, as long as their interpretation is consistent throughout the game. Right now, game 3 of the ALDS between the Los Angeles-Anaheim Angels and Boston Red Sox is on in the background and I heard the announcers say, “the strike zone seems bigger in this game then in the first two.” Okay, I’m fine with that, as long as that strike zone stays consistent. When watching basketball games and football games you can pretty much decide in the first few minutes whether the referees will let the players be more physical and let more things go. I’m fine with that too, a little street ball never hurt anyone. But, the problem we run into is that every referee is human, and humans have emotion. You think that when you yell profanities at referees that they aren’t affected emotionally by that. Referees have feelings too. We almost see referees as a by-standard to the game, just a zebra standing there, but they are every much a part of the game as the players and coaches.

Next time you watch a a college basketball game take notice to the team fouls. In college basketball there are two halves, after 7 team fouls in a half the other team gets to shoot “one-and-one,” meaning if they make the first free throw they get to attempt a second. After 10 team fouls in a half the other team gets two free throws. Since the fairness in college basketball is largely based on foul count and foul shots, you’ll see an interesting paradox once one team inches closer to 7 team fouls. The interesting paradox is that the other team all of a sudden will start fouling more to even it up so both teams get one-and-one at about the same time. Wait a second, or do the referees jut start calling more fouls on the other team? Think about it, it’s deep. I was attending a college basketball game when the team fouls were 7 on one team and 2 on the other. In the matter of minutes they were even at 7 and 7. In football you can see much of the same with holding calls. Honestly, holding can be called on about every play, so if the penalty yard disparity becomes too much, expect a few of those to be thrown in. After the NBA’s 133 page report on refereeing I can give you a two-word report on refereeing that will solve our problems, ‘USE ROBOTS!’ Think about it, robots have no emotion and if they can make video game so true to form than surely robots can do the job. There would be no biases or prejudices, unless the robots revolted and combined against us. Let’s just stick with what we have now, take the bad with the good, and accept the fact that referees are people like me and you…almost.

Tags: College Football, MLB, NBA, NFL, Olympics

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under College Football, MLB, NBA, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.