As an avid sports fan, I understand the emotional intensity that comes with watching a game, no matter how low the stakes. Whether I’m cheering on my younger brother as he plays a match of youth soccer or watching my favorite professional sports teams, I often feel as emotionally invested as I would be if I were a player on the field. Games that don’t end with a victory for my team often produce an emotional reaction that compels me to find any excuse for the loss. Oftentimes, a significant amount of blame falls on the game officials, whether they are referred to as referees, umpires or judges.
While referees are often seen by sports fans as malicious entities who rig games against your favorite sports team, this could not be further from the reality. Most referees are part-time employees or volunteers who are merely trying to support the games that they love as much as we fans do. If we want to promote fairness in sports, the onus falls on us to stop blaming people for making unintentional mistakes and instead direct our ire to the billion-dollar sports leagues who have the real power to create change.
While watching games, sports fans may not consider the difficulties of refereeing. Even at the youth level, referees are pushed to quit due to heckling from angry parents. This directly impacts the players themselves. In Utah, 570 youth soccer matches had to be cancelled in one season due to a lack of necessary referees. More than 70% of referees cite abusive behavior as the primary factor for quitting, meaning fans need to promote sportsmanship in order to ensure that youth sports can survive.
On the professional level, social media has only made the officials’ job more difficult. Many fans criticize the calls made by referees online, sometimes going as far as to send them death threats. However, the reality is that professional sports have never been better officiated. According to the NFL, their referees are accurate on 98.9% of calls. MLB umpires are more accurate than they were 10 years ago with a nearly 94% accuracy in calling balls and strikes. If this is the case, then why do fans continue to distrust game officials?
One factor might be negativity bias. Even if referees make the correct calls most of the time, fans will be more likely to dwell on the ones they miss, especially if they come at crucial moments in games. As fans, it’s important to remember that referees are human and cannot be reasonably expected to call a flawless game. However, if we want officiating numbers to reach that flawless mark, we should not be heckling well-meaning referees. This will only cause them to quit, which directly goes against the goal both parties are trying to achieve. Instead, we should put more pressure on sports leagues to give referees the support they need to make more accurate calls.
In today’s sports world, replay technology has allowed us to see multiple camera angles of every play, giving referees a chance to correct any mistakes they may make in the moment. However, this technology isn’t always available to officials. In the NFL, several penalties are non-reviewable, meaning referees cannot use replay technology to review their calls. In the MLB, umpires are still responsible for manually calling balls and strikes from behind the plate even though every ballpark has the technological capability to automate this system. At the very least, players and coaches should be able to challenge calls to ensure the most crucial at-bats are properly reviewed, which has already been implemented in the minor leagues. While this may slow games down slightly, it is in the best interest of all parties to ensure officials are allowed to use the technological resources that could help them correct mistakes.
No matter how often you watch or play sports, it’s important to respect the referees who dedicate their time and energy to allow sports games to take place. If every sports fan spent time pressuring leagues to implement policy changes that value fairness over entertainment instead of criticizing the referees, the entire sports world would be a less toxic place. The referees have no incentive to ruin their trust with the public just to help the Kansas City Chiefs win football games, as many fans theorize, and I encourage every reader to keep this mentality in mind no matter what sport you enjoy.
