Most referees only choose to see what they want to see.

During a basketball game, my friend Kaitlyn got slapped in the face when the ref was looking right at her. However, the ref didn’t call that as a foul. When that incident occurred, there were phrases like, “Great call ref! Maybe you’ll tell us cows can fly too!” shouted from the stands.

Bad calls don’t happen in just recreational and school level sports. Everywhere, refs are as blind as bats and as dumb as doornails!

Haven’t refs ever played sports and known how awful and aggravating it is when the refs choose to see what they want to see? Or do they know everything about sports and think that they are too good to play sports so they can only ref the games? Let’s say that your favorite football player is Brett Farve, and he got faced masked, but the ref didn’t throw a yellow flag. How would you feel? How would Farve feel? I know just about everyone can relate to that situation. If the refs do decide to do something about what they saw, they have to hold a little “ref pow-wow” with their little cronies. Meanwhile someone is standing there saying, “Really ref!? He slapped me from here to eternity!”

You know, I think the refs don’t think we, as fans, know the rules. My logic behind this statement is that one time at a basketball game, my friend’s dad called out, “Three seconds, ref!” Then during half time, the ref came up to the dad and said “The three seconds start when the ball goes up or the player looses the dribble.” Thank you for the valuable information. I’m sure you’ll go extremely far in life. Also, that dad had played basketball for three years in college, so I think there is a tiniest glimmer of possibility that he knew that! At a high school football game, a dad was loudly cheering on his son. The ref, however, claimed that the dad was being a distraction to the game. The ref threw such a hissy fit that the school board representative for sports had to come over and tell him to pipe down. If you look closely at a high school code of conduct, there is nothing about cheering too loudly. Maybe it says something about cheering inappropriately, but there is nothing about being too loud. Why can’t our parents show their pride of us?

If the ref doesn’t like you or your team, he/she won’t ref fairly. It doesn’t matter what you do. Maybe you accidentally got your grimy ball too close to the high delicate gloss on their precious shoes.

Given this information, hopefully I have convinced you that most refs don’t ref fairly. My suggestions? Well, for one, go back to Reffing School. Two, re-read (or for some, read it for the first time!) the rulebook for whatever sports you plan to ref. And lastly, be fair when reffing.
Think about all of these suggestions every time you ref. Everyone will appreciate it!