A Question for Referees

A player goes to the foul line, his team is down by one point, with no time left on the clock. He misses the first, and then misses the second and his team loses.

Does he feel responsible for the loss?

I would say 99 percent of players would feel that they lost the game. I know people would go up to him and tell him things like, "shouldn’t have come down to that," and  "there were a lot of other mistakes we made,” etc.

You all know the routine, but I believe most players go home feeling  they are responsible for losing the game.

Coaches, after a close loss, think back about all their decisions during the game.   Should I have called a timeout in the last seconds rather than pushing it up?  Should I have run a different play, to a different player?  Should I have gone to a zone?  Should I have double teamed the guy that hit the winning shot?  Should I have…should I have…should I have…???

I do know one thing.  Most coaches feel responsibility for the all close losses.  Even in cases where a player misses a wide open shot, or misses that crucial foul shot, coaches still feel responsible.  They could have done something differently.

Where am I going with this?

This weekend, I’m watching a very close game and a ref completely blows a call, directly preventing a team from winning the game, outright.  If that ref had not made the call he made, the game was flat out over .  As it turns out, the team which would have won, went on to lose the game, making some real mistakes. 

But, I go back to that bad call.  The game would have and should have been over.

My question is: do you think the referee feels any responsibility for the outcome of the game?

When the referee goes over the tape of the game, which he should do, does he feel any responsibility for the blown call, and the effect it had on the outcome?  I doubt many refs look at this blog, but if one does, I would love a response. 

However, I do know what one supervisor of officials in a college conference once told me when I was in a discussion with him about officiating.  He told me, “no ref has every been responsible for winning or losing a game.”

That statement has bothered me for a long time.  I think that kind of attitude takes away accountability from refs.  Like all other participants in the game, I think officials should feel that their actions (especially their mistakes) can be very consequential.  To think not, is a cop out to me.

Just as that player who missed that last shot, or the coach who loses a close game feels responsibility, so should that ref.  I have heard refs talk about that tough call they had enough balls to  make (correctly) in the clutch, and proud of  it.  Do they feel bad when they blow a call or is it just another day in the office?  After the game is it,”where are we going to dinner?”, or “damn, I blew that thing!”

I’ve never refereed, except in practices, where when players complained about my calls, I just told them I was getting them ready for the real refs.  But I am curious.

I suspect the good ones feel responsibility.  The bad ones have the attitude of that supervisor.

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