Stop Blaming the Refs

I intended to run this piece in my weekly column for Online Onslaught last week, but due to reasons with WWE's retarded personel decisions, the show I cover did not air. It didn't air this week either, so I'm forced to either 1) give up the column, or 2) put it somewhere else. I chose 2, because I wanted to get this off my chest. So, yeah... just remember that this was intended to be read the Thursday after the Super Bowl...

The Steelers won the Super Bowl on Sunday. That is my favorite team, as I’ve made public here [at Online Onslaught] many times in the last few weeks. The night should have been one of my favorite nights, something of joy that only a sports fan can feel when their team wins it all. But, I made a mistake.

I looked at some of the sports message boards afterwards.

Many of the posts made me furious, because yet again many sports fans have this inherent instinct to blame the officials whenever anything happens. Maybe it’s just because I’m an official myself, but it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Am I just this angry because they’re saying my favorite team was “helped” to win? Maybe. But I’ve felt this way for a long time, about all sporting contests. And not JUST against the Steelers or teams I like.

Here’s an example. One post I’ve seen is that the “league [and/or officials] like Pittsburgh, so they helped them win.” Bullshit. I’ve had that insult flung at me before as I’ve walked off football fields: “You only gave them that win because you liked them.” Please. I’m paid the same amount no matter who wins, who loses, what the score is, and how long it lasts. I honestly couldn’t give two shits who wins. And if a given team in our area’s high schools consistently win, it’s because their players and coaches are good-quality.

Did the officials blow some calls in the Super Bowl? Of course they did. No game is perfect, no matter how well you try. But they blew some against the Steelers too. It’s not like the officials tried to goose the plays one way or another. In fact, it may have been one of the worse officiated Super Bowls I’ve seen in the last few years. That still doesn’t mean it was some conspiracy.

Have I blown calls? Of course I have. One time, in my first season, I saw a personal foul face mask penalty: one defender grabbed the entire helmet of the runner and pulled him to the ground by it. I did not penalize it, because at the time, I didn’t realize I could make that call when it happens on the other side of the field. I didn’t no-call it because I wanted to help out the defense. I blew it simply because I made a mistake. And that mistake has not happened twice.

Even if the Seahawks had won, there would be just as many posts saying the officials did a horrible job. It’s just “easy” to blame the officials and be done with it. No need to take stock of what’s actually happening, no need to examine the game on a play-by-play basis, or figure out if coaching decisions led to problems. What if Hasselbeck hadn’t thrown that late interception? What if the Seahawks had managed the clock better at the end? What if the Seahawks better converted on all the mistakes the Steelers made, from the early threes-and-out to their turnovers? What if, what if, what if… but who cares, it’s all the refs’ fault, right?

I’m tired of the sports world conspiracies. Someone had the gall to tell me that the only reason the Patriots won the Super Bowl in the 2001-2002 season was so the NFL and the country could say that the “Patriots overcame all odds to survive” in some insane parallel to the events of September 11, and then the NFL just gave them two more Super Bowl wins to throw off the intelligent people from making a connection.

What is so difficult anymore about accepting the following: 1. The team that wins a given contest did so because on that day, for that event, they were a better quality team than their opponents. 2. The officials, no matter how many mistakes they make, are impartial and simply did the best job they could. 3. The team that loses did not do so because the league or some other organization is helping them, but instead because they were simply outplayed or out-coached.

Finally, note that I’m not trying to defend bad calls or bad officiating. Bill Leavy’s crew (the crew of Super Bowl XL) is not my favorite crew, and I do not believe they are the best crew in the NFL. The crew isn’t even in my top three. (My top three crews are Ed Hochuli’s, Gerry Austin’s, and Mike Carrey’s, not that you know who any of these people are.) But you can believe me that, while I may have been upset and bitter that each of the last few years that the Steelers made the playoffs and didn’t win the Super Bowl, I never once blamed the officials. Blame lies with no one but the Steelers’ players and coaching staff if something goes wrong.

That applies to all levels of all sports, at least as far as I’m concerned. Short of the outcome of a game being connected to a family member’s well-being, no one can offer me any amount of anything to fix a game. No matter how friendly I am with a coach, no matter who signs my paychecks, I will call every game in every sport I officiate as impartially and as fairly as I can.

And me? I’m just a high school official. I don’t even have the skill, motivation, or scrutiny that college- and professional-level officials have. So please, I’m begging all of you, can you just stop all the official-bashing? All of these quick-and-easy blame games to make everything take the focus off whose “fault” everything really is? Can you just accept an outcome without thinking something larger is happening?

To the people who blamed the officials in the first place: I know you can’t hear my words, because you’re—to use Rick’s phrase—part of the problem and will never be swayed to understand that maybe the world doesn’t wholly operate on conspiracy theories and private agendas. But hey, you just keep living in your fantasy world full of intrigue and more storylines than a Vince Russo-run wrestling organization. Kindly leave me the hell alone, and I’ll give you the same courtesy.