Give the Refs a Break

There have been countless times when a sports fan sees a call that isn't in his or her favor and becomes quite angry. Understandable of course.

Everyone hates it when something bad happens to their team, whether it be a home run that was called a double, or a linebacker called for face mask when clearly on the television screen he barely even touched him let alone grabbed his face mask.

What intrigues me the most is the fact that no one considers the vantage point of the official.

For example, in American Football the referee's point of view is blocked by the onslaught of players running every which way. Also, there is the fact that even though the ref may be looking straight at them, the players may be in such a position that the refs might as well be closing their eyes.

That also brings up the interesting point of how long the football game really is. The average game, according to several websites, is between three hours and 26 minutes and three hours and 47 minutes, during which time I guarantee you that a an official's eyes will blink.

In a game in which things happen in a split second, a simple blink could compromise a ref's view of a call while our views via our HD television sets are clear.

In Pro Baseball, the sport which is more anal about stats than any other sport in existence, umpires are scrutinized by every fan, player, and manager. I believe this can be very stressful.

Baseball should adopt an instant replay only for certain cases. For instance, home runs can sometimes be very hard to see from first base or wherever the heck the ump is, so close calls should be reviewable. I'm very surprised that it's taking this long to actually seriously consider acquiring instant replay

I believe that home field advantage plays a major role in whose favor refs/umpires rule their calls. I would rather side with the home fans in a controversial call mainly because the fact is, I would rather make it home alive rather than havae my career in sports end in a riot.

Of course, what would sports be without the controversial calls that cripple a team's hope of winning a game? What would we say to our buddies at work about the game? "Hey T, did you see the game last night?" 

"Yes I did Kyle, I must say that was some mighty fine officiating last night."

Heck no!  Bad calls are what make a game interesting to watch and talk about. One-third of the stories we have now would be nonexistent if bad calls weren't there to fill them.

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