How Bad Refs Have Ruined Sports

Within the last week, nearly every sporting event I watch ends the same way... In Controversy. Both UEFA Champions League games had at least one highly debatable, crucial call. NBA Playoff games are reffed different from quarter to quarter, much less game to game. Even the NHL (who's refs I generally like) disallowed a goal for Detroit two nights ago.

What happened to the good ol' days when after the game people were actually talking ABOUT THE GAME?!?

The NBA continues to assign referees blatantly biased against teams and players (see Boston v Chicago game 3, and Joey Crawford getting assigned to a Tim Duncan game, hell any game for that matter) with complete and utter disregard for the integrity of their game.

The Dallas vs Denver game 1 matchup proved to be utterly unwatchable due to touch fouls being called on one end, while manslaughters weren't called on the other end.

When Michael Carrick can miss a final he's worked his whole life for because of a bad call that CAN'T be rescinded something is just wrong.

Too often these days officials lose control, and in an effort to regain their authority they utilize quick whistles. The problem with this is that we get end results like Detroit vs Anaheim game 2 where a clearly legal goal is disallowed.

The list of games with brutal officiating is too many to roll off in this column, and I certainly don't have the "easy button" fix to make things better, but something must be done.

One simple, far too rationale solution would be to hire and train refs that are the SAME AGE as the athletes their officiating. Is this that novel of a concept? If you're over 35 in most sports you're nearing retirement, yet you probably haven't even begun your career in officiating. Does anybody really think Dick Bavetta still has the eyesight he did when he was 20???

As Athletes get older their abilities clearly diminish over time, how or why no one has figured out that the same goes for referees BOGGLES THE MIND.

Obviously anything left to human interpretation is going to have some errors, but is a little consistency too much to ask for??

Chuck Liddell was all but FORCED to retire by his boss, UFC President Dana White,  after his diminished skills put his livelyhood at risk. Clearly he's in the wrong line of work. Had he been an NBA Official David Stern would be offering him a raise.