Since the beginning of sports, referees have been known to make it all about them and show up players. It doesn’t matter what sport it is, it can be baseball, basketball, or football, every referee has done something to make it about themselves.
It goes from giving dumb and pointless fouls in basketball, to having an outrageous strike zone in baseball to missing obvious flags in football. And you want to know what pisses me off the most? The fact that referees get off scot free and don’t have to assume responsibility for being horseshit at their jobs. But players have to sit there and answer dumb, repeated, cookie cutter questions about their performance day in and day out.
You may be wondering, why is this a topic at hand? This is why friend
Since Sunday, the plays above have taken place. Its downright bullshit to say the least. First off, JJ Reddick gets a tech and ejected for rolling the ball back to a ref?
Now, was the ball rolled at a speed higher than usually rolled to a referee? Sure. Was JJ pissed he got a foul called on him and had a potential basket taken away? Probably. Did JJ say something under his breath while also rolling the ball like he was bowling? Who knows. But that doesn’t deny the fact that it looked like a bs call. If anything it’s a heat-of-the-moment type of anger that will most likely over with by the time he gets the ball again.
Now, the second clip. This was from a peer half hour from the time I am writing this. Giannis vs KAT is a matchup to watch, not as much as it was a few years ago, but still a good game. From the clip, we see Giannis get defended by KAT, and score. While he is walking backwards, he makes a face at the direction of KAT and it ends with Giannis getting called for taunting. What the fuck is this? Its one thing to have it done to a referee I supposed, but to a player? Come on. Basketball isn’t the only sport we see this from. We saw it in the Super Bowl when Bucs’ Wide Receiver Antoine Winfield Jr mocked Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill late in the game.
But plowing things out of proportion isn’t the only thing referees are doing that ruin good games. The either make an outlandish foul call or don’t call a blatant foul call. Just look back at Saints vs Rams in 2018.
And don’t even get me started on baseball and the piss poor job that umpires do.
Don’t even get me started on that disgrace to baseball named Angel Hernandez. The man is the worst referee/umpires in all of sports. He is so bad that there are numerous YouTube compilations of his horrendous calls.
Angel Hernandez is so delusional that he thinks the only reason MLB and Joe Torre don’t pick him to umpire World Series games is because he’s Latino. No, dickhead, it’s because you absolutely suck. Angel has gone so far to sue the MLB for discrimination, so they can’t fire him at the moment as it will look bad on the league and he will be able to use it against them in the lawsuit.
I will end this by saying there is one clear cut solution to this ongoing and ever-growing problem. What is that you ask? The MLB, NFL, and NBA (ah fuck it all sports leagues), should mandate referees to have to answer questions from the media after every game for an hour, minimum. Just like how they mandate players answer media questions, the same should go for referees. If this happens, I promise you, you will see a decline in outrageous calls, a decline in missed calls, and see better officiating.
P.S. There’s only one umpire/referee that I know took responsibility for making a shit call and blowing a game. And that’s Jim Joyce, who infamously blew former Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga’s perfect game in 2010. Joyce like a man, looked at the replay after the game, told reporters to go into the umpire’s room, and admitted he blew the call. The very next day, he apologized to Galarraga’s face like a man.
P.P.S Here’s a rule for sports fans: if you know a referee or umpire’s name, its either because they absolutely suck or are respected by the league.
