Sports Officiating: Do You Have What It Takes To Don the Stripes?

Officiating: 50 percent right or 100 percent Wrong. Don't complain about the one thing that you could improve in sports. Officiating!

Every one of the officials you have criticized on upper levels have worked hundreds more games than most of you have ever seen.

They usually start at the lowest levels of a sport: Pee Wee football, T-ball baseball etc. etc. Each official has to show knowledge of the game and know the rules, and how the rules are applied.  It takes hundreds of hours to progress to the next level of a sport.  Then have to adjust to each league rule changes as you progress by written tests and on-field application and performace. Add to that an observer in the press box who reports those things, and this isn't even your regular job. 

Here is the good news: you, yes you, can become an official. A good start would be as a volunteer at your local recreation department. Put on the uniform and take that step on to the playing field see what its like. You can change your view of the game, make the calls, enforce the penalties, help control the game. Your help would be welcome. All sports need new officials.

So which sports have the best officiating? All of them. They each have the best and worst, just like your job.

What changes can be made to improve quality? New blood, which brings more rotation within the crews.

Which sport is the easiest and hardest to officiate? Every one of them is both the hardest and easiest, nothing is easy.

In which sport do officials play the greatest role in determining the outcome of the game? The players determine the outcome of any game, the officials just call the game.

Who are the best and worst officials?  Don't judge by that criteria, it just comes down to which side you are cheering to win.

So there it is, you can make a difference in your favorite sport and become a part of it. Just remember when you officiate a perfect game, nobody knows you were there, you were just about invisible. That's your reward, but don't take it from me: ask any official. Even better, become one. If you have what it takes, get in there and see if you do. But then, you probably don't and won't.