Fans are everything in the sports world of today. After all professional athletes are in
fact only entertainers. Many
spectators live and die by the success of their team at both the collegiate and
professional levels. This is understandable,
but doesn’t excuse poor behavior at sporting events. This was brought to my attention while I was watching my
sister’s division three college soccer game. It was a reasonable physical game, which is to be expected,
but I was disappointed with the spectators on both sides. They were very vocal with their complaints
on both called and uncalled fouls. Specific individuals on both sides repeatedly voiced their
dissatisfaction with the referee quite loudly. During this I laughed to myself at their opinionated views,
which usually had to do with calls involving their children, as most fans were
parents. Not many outsiders come to watch division three soccer. The center ref was doing a fine job calling fairly both
ways. However, many fans were unable
to see this, their eyes clouded by the bias for their team.
I have experience with officiating and know firsthand how
annoying and obnoxious parents an fans can be. A close call that goes their way is a “good call” but that
same call that goes against them is cause for complaint. Baseball is much worse than soccer in
this sense. Balls and strikes are
an umpire’s judgment, and they are much more reliable standing directly behind the plate than the fan sitting at an angle fifty rows back. To make it worse, both baseball and
football broadcasters have the ability to digitally chart balls and strikes and
view plays in slow motion, and asses the accuracy of calls. Television viewer see these potential
missed calls and then come to not trust the officials. This leads to accusations against the
refs and the officials are put at fault.
No bad call is so significant that it can be given fault of
a loss. No team in any sport plays
so perfectly that they can say they would have won had it not been for this or
that call. Spectators need to
realize this and also recognize their biases. So sit down, shut up, and watch the game. If you feel that your team should have
won, well, too bad they should have played better, yelling at the official
isn’t going to help.
No comments:
Post a Comment