By Cameron Moore (6th)
Happy May! It’s time for another Question of the Month: Why have referees in sports been hot garbage?
This has been a hot storyline recently, with some of the worst work behind home plate that we have seen in years, not to mention lots of controversial calls (and no-calls) in this NBA season, including a no-call that may have cost the 76ers a game two win against the New York Knicks.
We’ll start by talking about what everyone is talking about: the terrible work of the home plate umpire. Some of these moments are so bad that you have to watch them to believe them. First of all, it is the crown jewel of the season. Take it away, Angel Hernandez.
Watch Angel Hernandez not do his job here!
Abysmal stuff. But there’s more. For example, the New York Yankees’ Juan Soto was struck out on seven “balls” outside of the zone!
Watch that here.
But, one of the most insane umpire moments from this season was in a game between the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics, where New York manager Aaron Boone said, “...” That’s literally what he said. Nothing. But, he was still thrown out of the game because the umpire mistaked a fan’s yells for Boone’s.
Just click here. I don’t have any more words for this.
The MLB, however, isn’t the only league that’s having its officials criticized. The NBA has a very similar issue, and we already saw two controversial moments in the Knicks-76ers first round series.
First of all, in game two, a missed foul caused the most improved award winner, the 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey, to go to the floor with no call before former Villanova Wildcat, the Knicks’ Dante DiVincenzo, hit a three to give New York the lead in the dying moments of the game, which lead to a Knicks win. The league did say that their refs made a miscall, but that is the big issue with the league, which I’ll talk about later in the article.
Click here to see it.
More controversy arose in game 3, when Sixers star Joel Embiid pulled on Mitchell Robinson’s legs right under the bucket, and it was ruled a flagrant 1 foul, not a flagrant 2 foul.
In case you don’t know how the flagrant foul system works, there are two types: 1 and 2. These fouls are awarded on dangerous plays, and two flagrant 1 fouls on one player will eject them. But, one flagrant 2 foul will eject a player immediately, and that is what the Knicks were arguing: it was originally called a flagrant 1, but they wanted it to be a flagrant 2. Embiid would go on to score fifty points in a pivotal Sixers win that kept them in the series.
My big issue with Adam Silver’s view of officiating is that he just apologizes for controversial calls. I’ve probably gotten at least 20 ESPN notifications about the league apologizing for bad calls, this year ALONE. I chuckle at this point, just because the officiating is so bad. To be honest, I’m not sure if Adam Silver knows if apologizing will do anything. It’s THAT bad.
However, I’m not looking over the NFL, even if its in its off-season. One of the most controversial calls of last season happened in a pivotal late-season game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions, when Lions OL Taylor Decker “reported eligible” and caught a huge 2-point conversion to take the lead. But, it got called back because referee Brad Allen thought OL Dan Skipper reported eligible. Allen’s crew has caused more controversy as of late, and this is just one of many referee problems in the league.
But WHY are they so bad? To be honest, I have no idea. Major League Soccer’s referees just ended their lockout and are back to refereeing games after finally getting paid. But pay isn’t really an excuse. I think these leagues should severely punish their referees to pressure them to do better.