We Need To Show Refs Some Respect
February 1, 2017 at 5:20 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
Basketball seemed to be the worst, and mainly I think because I was sure the officials could hear me in the gym, where they could not in other sports where I was more removed from the action.
As a young Argos soccer fan, when high school and college soccer venues were not what they are today, it was pretty easy to get caught up in it too.
I look back on those days, and I understand why I did it. I do wish I had done less of it. I certainly regret two things I did during those elementary-aged days. I wish I could have taken them back, or at least could have had a chance to apologize to those men for what I said. But those chances are long gone.
Thank God that’s not me anymore. Being on the radio allows you the opportunity to express your opinions on a call, a trend in an official’s callings or the effect that a call has on a moment, a game or potentially a season. It also demands that you, as someone who people are counting on to give an accurate description and accounting of what is happening, be not only fair in your description of how the officials are doing but you must have a really, really thick filter on your microphone before you ‘put the officials on blast’.
I have over the years worked really hard at that responsibility. In more than 2,300 games that I have now broadcast on the radio stations here in Warsaw, I can count on one hand the number of games that the officials genuinely caused Warsaw to lose without the Tigers at least helping a lot.
You know what the biggest part of that has been for me? I officiated myself.
When I started college in 1986, I got my license for baseball and basketball. I gave up baseball fairly quickly because I got tired of getting hit by pitches because the catchers had trouble stopping pitches that weren’t right down the middle. But I stuck with basketball. For college purposes, it was a really good way of making pizza and gas money, I got paid to exercise, and it helped keep me in high school sports.
I kept my license and did as many games as I could here in the area when I moved here in 1993. It was mostly middle school and elementary games because of all the varsity games I was doing on the radio. I enjoyed it, but in 2012 I let my license expire because I just didn’t get any more middle school games since they scheduled out so far in advance and I could get elementary games without a license.
I still keep in contact with officials who I grew quite close to during that time, and before every season I seek their knowledge on new rules and points of emphasis for the upcoming year. I consider many of the men and women in striped shirts my friends, and gladly so (which I understand how some of you will view as Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners).
I write that because Triton Athletic Director Mason McIntyre wrote in an open email to the fans and supporters of Triton sports asking them to re-think their treatment of game officials.
He pointed to an article in the Chicago Tribune that described a bill currently working its way through the Indiana General Assembly that would add special protection to game officials in grade school sporting events who are physically assaulted or intimidated by fans.
Yep, really.
It’s happened a couple of times that I know of – one of them to Andy Simpson of Crown Point, who I consider a friend and one of the state’s best whistle-blowers.
The Senate version of the bill would make it a felony to harm an official, while the House’s would leave it a misdemeanor but includes language that would shield a game official from any civil lawsuits that might come up from the calls they make.
OK, so just stop here a second and chew on those last three paragraphs for a few minutes … I’ll wait.
So now we have need to making physical abuse of a game official just short of a hate crime?
Yep, we sure do.
It’s gone too far. McIntyre wrote that he didn’t understand why fans would yell what they yell and act like they act to game officials. He asked them to stop and think about what they were saying and how they were saying it next time.
The answer is pretty simple: hand those people a striped shirt and a whistle and say “your turn.” I guarantee that at least 67 percent would hand the shirt and whistle back immediately and say something like “not me … you can’t pay me enough to do that!” I guarantee 95 percent of the ones who tried it would find it a lot harder than they thought and would start getting yelled at themselves.
Truth is, as McIntyre added, we are losing good officials every year. In basketball, Kirk Robinson has announced that this is his last season, and Eric Coburn says he plans to work the rest of this season before he makes his last circuit next season. They’ve heard it all and nothing fans say or do would stop them. They just are ready to stop.
Who are we replacing them with? Who will step into their shoes?
No one is going to.
We are on the verge of a crisis in high school sports, and it is that we are approaching a shortfall of game officials. People who have faithfully served the young people in our area are ready to move on to other things or are getting to an age or place in life where they can’t do it like they used to. People who could become referees at young ages and get good at it are not starting.
Who would want to get treated like that?
So it’s OK to complain about a call when they get it wrong. We all get that. Sports are filled with emotion. But what are you saying, how are you saying it, and who is listening to you and watching you when you are doing it? Anyone young and impressionable sitting around you?
Your $5 ticket, or the fact that the game official gets paid to officiate, is not a free pass to heap verbal abuse onto anyone. Your self-appointed role of enlightening us all with just exactly what is on your mind, which includes how little you know about the game you’re watching and even more of how little you know about the rules of that sport, is just not necessary and it’s harming the sport.
My guess is no one comes to your job from the outside, watches you work, yells at you and calls you bad names using foul language.
If they did, you’d quit that job.
See what I mean?
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Basketball seemed to be the worst, and mainly I think because I was sure the officials could hear me in the gym, where they could not in other sports where I was more removed from the action.
As a young Argos soccer fan, when high school and college soccer venues were not what they are today, it was pretty easy to get caught up in it too.
I look back on those days, and I understand why I did it. I do wish I had done less of it. I certainly regret two things I did during those elementary-aged days. I wish I could have taken them back, or at least could have had a chance to apologize to those men for what I said. But those chances are long gone.
Thank God that’s not me anymore. Being on the radio allows you the opportunity to express your opinions on a call, a trend in an official’s callings or the effect that a call has on a moment, a game or potentially a season. It also demands that you, as someone who people are counting on to give an accurate description and accounting of what is happening, be not only fair in your description of how the officials are doing but you must have a really, really thick filter on your microphone before you ‘put the officials on blast’.
I have over the years worked really hard at that responsibility. In more than 2,300 games that I have now broadcast on the radio stations here in Warsaw, I can count on one hand the number of games that the officials genuinely caused Warsaw to lose without the Tigers at least helping a lot.
You know what the biggest part of that has been for me? I officiated myself.
When I started college in 1986, I got my license for baseball and basketball. I gave up baseball fairly quickly because I got tired of getting hit by pitches because the catchers had trouble stopping pitches that weren’t right down the middle. But I stuck with basketball. For college purposes, it was a really good way of making pizza and gas money, I got paid to exercise, and it helped keep me in high school sports.
I kept my license and did as many games as I could here in the area when I moved here in 1993. It was mostly middle school and elementary games because of all the varsity games I was doing on the radio. I enjoyed it, but in 2012 I let my license expire because I just didn’t get any more middle school games since they scheduled out so far in advance and I could get elementary games without a license.
I still keep in contact with officials who I grew quite close to during that time, and before every season I seek their knowledge on new rules and points of emphasis for the upcoming year. I consider many of the men and women in striped shirts my friends, and gladly so (which I understand how some of you will view as Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners).
I write that because Triton Athletic Director Mason McIntyre wrote in an open email to the fans and supporters of Triton sports asking them to re-think their treatment of game officials.
He pointed to an article in the Chicago Tribune that described a bill currently working its way through the Indiana General Assembly that would add special protection to game officials in grade school sporting events who are physically assaulted or intimidated by fans.
Yep, really.
It’s happened a couple of times that I know of – one of them to Andy Simpson of Crown Point, who I consider a friend and one of the state’s best whistle-blowers.
The Senate version of the bill would make it a felony to harm an official, while the House’s would leave it a misdemeanor but includes language that would shield a game official from any civil lawsuits that might come up from the calls they make.
OK, so just stop here a second and chew on those last three paragraphs for a few minutes … I’ll wait.
So now we have need to making physical abuse of a game official just short of a hate crime?
Yep, we sure do.
It’s gone too far. McIntyre wrote that he didn’t understand why fans would yell what they yell and act like they act to game officials. He asked them to stop and think about what they were saying and how they were saying it next time.
The answer is pretty simple: hand those people a striped shirt and a whistle and say “your turn.” I guarantee that at least 67 percent would hand the shirt and whistle back immediately and say something like “not me … you can’t pay me enough to do that!” I guarantee 95 percent of the ones who tried it would find it a lot harder than they thought and would start getting yelled at themselves.
Truth is, as McIntyre added, we are losing good officials every year. In basketball, Kirk Robinson has announced that this is his last season, and Eric Coburn says he plans to work the rest of this season before he makes his last circuit next season. They’ve heard it all and nothing fans say or do would stop them. They just are ready to stop.
Who are we replacing them with? Who will step into their shoes?
No one is going to.
We are on the verge of a crisis in high school sports, and it is that we are approaching a shortfall of game officials. People who have faithfully served the young people in our area are ready to move on to other things or are getting to an age or place in life where they can’t do it like they used to. People who could become referees at young ages and get good at it are not starting.
Who would want to get treated like that?
So it’s OK to complain about a call when they get it wrong. We all get that. Sports are filled with emotion. But what are you saying, how are you saying it, and who is listening to you and watching you when you are doing it? Anyone young and impressionable sitting around you?
Your $5 ticket, or the fact that the game official gets paid to officiate, is not a free pass to heap verbal abuse onto anyone. Your self-appointed role of enlightening us all with just exactly what is on your mind, which includes how little you know about the game you’re watching and even more of how little you know about the rules of that sport, is just not necessary and it’s harming the sport.
My guess is no one comes to your job from the outside, watches you work, yells at you and calls you bad names using foul language.
If they did, you’d quit that job.
See what I mean?
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