From the Bleachers – Referees need to stop making mistakes

By Ryan Kuhn
The Guardsman

People make mistakes. Whether the mistakes come from home like, “Sorry honey, I forgot it was your birthday,” or at the office with someone saying, “I knew I shouldn’t have said that comment to her,” people do mess up time to time. Saying that, it does not mean making those mistakes is acceptable.

Mistakes often happen in the world of sports. Players sometimes forget the fundamentals of the game even with the years of experience and a nice seven-, eight- or even nine-figure check in their back pocket. But with that amount of money in their wallets, their mistakes during the game are also unacceptable.

But what about those guys who keep order during the games? The guys who call the balls and strikes, who call the technical fouls and who announces to everybody that the offensive player is lined up in the neutral zone. Are they allowed to make mistakes?

Umpires, officials and referees from every sport have made a mistake at one time or another. But with multiple eyes on the game, making a bad call is totally unacceptable.

A great example of one of the worst calls in professional sports was during the 2002 AFC Divisional Playoff game when the New England Patriots hosted the Oakland Raiders.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was sacked by defensive back Charles Woodson which caused him to fumble the ball. After the referees reviewed it, the play was overturned, saying it was an incomplete pass. The Patriots went on to win the game.

Now let it be clear that the Raiders are not on the top of my list of my favorite teams. In fact, they are probably one of the few that I despise. But “Raider Nation” was royally screwed. Referee Walt Coleman not only made one of the worst calls in football history but he overturned the call after watching the replay in slow motion on a monitor that clearly showed Brady fumbling the ball. I sincerely thought that to be an official you had to have 20/20 vision or corrective lenses, but apparently not.

Another example of the worst calls in professional sports came this year came in Detroit during a Major League Baseball game, but at least this one showed some class.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from throwing a perfect game, but umpire Jim Joyce called the runner at first safe when he was clearly out.
After the game when Joyce saw the replay he was quoted saying, “ I just cost that kid a perfect game.”

He later found Galarraga after the game, apologizing in tears.

Even though Joyce did the right thing after the game—and I give a standing applause to—he made a mistake, and it was not right. Not only is this kid not in the record books, but his pitching performance will also be affected as he thinks about that final out for the rest of the season.

Not only do bad calls come from the professionals, but from here in our own back yard as well.

Last Saturday, during a City College football game against Butte College, a City College defensive back clearly intercepted the ball in the end zone for a touchback, and the ball should have been placed at the 20-yard line. Instead, the field judge placed the ball at the 2-yard line.

With City College up by three points and a little over a minute to go in the game, this would clearly give Butte the advantage.

This might only be a community college game, but if someone is given a job they must do it to the best of their ability, and the field judge did not. Luckily the call did not affect the outcome of the game, which the Rams won 37-34

With advancing technology and the professional league’s implementation of instant replays, some of these mistakes are getting fixed, but some are not. Anyone can make a mistake, but just because someone wears a referee’s shirt does not mean they are always correct. Officials make mistakes and they often hear it from not only the players but the crowd as well.

Next time you go to a game just listen to the crowd when they announce the officials.