Referee’s undoubtedly are a major component of any sport. They manage the game so that it can be played fairly and that the right team takes the win. However let’s take a look at another lockout. This time a far more rarer occurrence than a player lockout, a referee lockout. What really gets under my skin is the fact that people involved in sport are completely changing the dynamic of the activity. Sports are about pride, passion, and a love for the game that creates an exciting and high-pressure atmosphere for the best of the best to duke it out. Leaving only one champion. However as times are changing sports are becoming more focused on the money. The advertisements, salaries, and the marketing opportunities (however I would call it exploitation) of premier players.
The really disappointing aspect of the referee lockout is that it completely destroyed any sense of enjoyment for the fans, as they see numerous bad calls called after one another in a game. At the end of it all the referees held out long enough to gain an increase in their pension/retirement plans, as well as an overall salary increase to 179,000. However now that we can restore our faith in the black and white let’s take a look at some of this year’s blunders;
-Vernon Davis catches a touchdown after play clock runs out – San Francisco 49ers Week 2
-Jim Harbaugh challenges a play – with no timeouts left – San Francisco 49ers Week 3
-Referee tosses his hat into end zone, forgets about it, continues the game and in the ensuing play causes a player to slip and miss a possible game winning touchdown
-Ike Taylor gets called for pass interference without any physically contact with the receiver- the obvious reasoning behind this call is that the referees believed that Ike fouled using a very rare and unique ability of telepathy
– The Monday Night Football Fiasco: Last play of the game with eight seconds left on the clock. Seahawks, Green Bay. Green Bay up by six, and with the Seahawks launching a hail marry pass that was grossly misinterpreted as a touchdown, even after the play was reviewed.
Hopefully the world of sport can return to what it is meant to be, and fans won’t have to put up with non-sense calls ever again.