Don Koharski, Ed Hoculey, Big John McCarthy: Good, Bad, and Ugly of Officiating

Officiating: the good, the bad and the ugly.

Ever since I was a little kid, one of the main things that would upset parents, fans, players and coaches on my sports teams was poor officiating.

Whether it’s a bad call, a no call or a late call, they aren’t good when they go against you or your team. Granted, the refs aren’t always to blame and we all look for outlets to blame when our teams are failing. That being said, one has to realize that the difficulty level for officials in each sport are different and the outcome the officiating can have on a sport varies as well.

What sports have the best officiating and which sports have weaker officiating?

This is subjective and somewhat dependent on the degree to which the officials are involved in the game or match. Many have accused hockey of being a sport that has weak officiating standards, although this maybe true, one has to look at the context of the sport.

In hockey one could argue that it is one of the highest-paced sports played in the world, mainly due to the fact that it is played on ice. The high pace in hockey and the number of calls that can be made make it difficult for officials to pull apart what may look like an infraction from what is in fact a great play. What you end up with in hockey is many calls that look borderline and to one team may look like the wrong call and to the opposing team was exactly the right call.

On the other hand, we have a sport like tennis where the points are quick and the main job of the official is to watch for line violations and foot faults. Although it requires great attention to detail, the main task of the official is much more narrow in comparison to that of a hockey official.

Sports like football and soccer lie in between hockey and tennis. Basketball would be similar to hockey and baseball officiating would fall along similar lines to tennis. That being said, all professional sports have professional officials, therefore making it safe to say that fans are seeing the best out there.

The NFL is a model example of a professional league that takes great care in determining its rules and ensuring that the officiating is the best out there. I rarely watch an NFL game asking myself whether that was a catch or not, a touchdown or not unless there was a clear mistake by the official. Every time a call is made in the NFL there is always a clear explanation for the call and the video replay has become very effective in helping with solving problems with the objective side of the game. Even with all that, NFL officials, players coaches and management have meetings every year discussing the rules of the game.

In the NHL  I find myself sometimes wondering how could that high stick almost blinding Saku Koivu and ruining his run in the playoffs against Carolina not be called. The NHL has also included what we call video replay, however unlike the NFL, the art of video replay has not been perfected.

For example when a player is high sticked and the blood is gushing, why can’t the team of the hurt player ask for a challenge if the ref made a no call? The blood is there and the video would tell you if a stick hit the player or not; there is no subjectivity there.

In the NHL there is room for improvement as far as video replay goes and objectivity of the rules because what is a call in one game can be a no call in another game and that seems to be one of the biggest changes in NHL officiating since the lockout in 2004.

Let’s talk about a sport where officiating has greatly improved over the years: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

MMA, particularly the UFC, is a league that has cleaned up the rule book and made a great effort to give their sport credibility on a grand scale. I remember in the past when the UFC was a fight until one man wasn’t standing and the ref looked like a spectator who managed to score in the octagon passes.

Today, many rules have been set in place to protect the fighters and help the sport grow into something popular. Officials working in the UFC know when to end a fight and the rules are clear cut.

This is of utmost importance because a few extra shots to the head of a non-defending fighter could lead to serious irreversible brain damage. I think the changes made to the rule books and officiating in the UFC are one of the biggest reasons why MMA has began to appeal to a more mainstream audience and not just a blood thirsty crowd of people that you would maybe expect to see at a cock fight or dog fight. With the greater responsibility given to refs in the UFC some people may feel they are able to affect the outcome of the fight, a problem that exists in many sports.

Is there one sport where officials have a greater chance at affecting the outcome of a game than another?

That is a tough call.

In hockey, calling a penalty shot in the last minute could definitely determine the outcome. In football, a lousy pass interference call can determining whether a team keeps their four point lead in the fourth or loses the game. In MMA an early stoppage by the ref can shatter a fighters hopes at a championship belt for that night. In tennis a line judge missing a long ball can determine the winner of a fifth set final at a grand slam.

Clearly the officials can play a role in the outcome of any sport. Is it a surprise that they can effect the outcome? Not really. Officials are as much a part of the game as the players, coaches, managers, owners and fans are and we all know that any of these one parties can determine the outcome of any given game or match.

All that being said, if it weren’t for the work of the referees and officials of each sport, professional sports would be no different then the pick-up games played between friends where scores and records don’t matter.

We will always be hard on the refs and it is important to be hard on them, because if no one objected the officiating would never change and evolve.