You Were Terrible, But Thank-You

The life of an Official, in ANY sport, is not easy. You are never right, never fast enough, and you become a punching bag for any and all sports fans. It comes with the territory. When you choose a life of officiating it's just part of the job description. You will be hated and you will be heckled. When you hold the outcome of the game in your hands though, you need to be ready for it. That's why we need regular officials.

The NFL realized that after just 3 weeks of replacement Officials. With their regular Officials in a contract dispute, the NFL was forced to bring in replacements to make sure the season continued. It was not well received from the beginning with many people afraid they would make a call that could affect the outcome of a game....

Unless you have been under a rock for the last week you know it finally happened. This was the breaking point for fans and enough to declare the replacement Officials inept and useless. And yes I agree. The officiating has been absolutely abysmal. But kudos to those that stepped up in a time of need.

Have you ever officiated a game? Any sport at any time? I have. I used to be a soccer referee. Did so for a number of years. Not just school games but league games as well. There is a reason I don't do it anymore. For several years I did what I thought was a pretty good job of officiating. Was told I was one of the more fair and balanced officials most players had met. But that was always post-game.

During the heat of battle, any athlete/fan/enthusiast just wants the Officials to not screw it up. Any slip-up, any missed call, any thing at all one team can use as ammunition to get on your case they will. Even when I did officiating I was still the guy yelling at the ref when I was the player. Weird right? It's just one of those things that happens in sport. The Officials are on their own. Always.

Not often do you hear about what a great job the Officials did and how they kept the game in check and made all the right calls. Blow one call....fans launch the nukes. With great power comes great responsibility, and that is the lesson we learned with the NFL using replacement Officials. When it comes to choosing the people responsible for enforcing the rules, you need the best. Plain and simple.

Again I applaud the fine gentlemen that stepped up to make sure a NFL season wasn't lost due to an Officials hold-out. These guys were instantly thrown into the biggest spotlight in sports television. Stadiums filled with 100,000 people to go along with the millions watching at home. Now watch these 22 men run around and hit each other and make diving plays all at split seconds. Now which guy grabbed his opponents jersey on that play? Of the 4 guys that jumped for the ball who had the most control before the dog-pile at the end?

90% of us won't be able to make these decisions in the split second we are asked to. It takes years of training and years of experience to do that. The replacement Officials showed why they are replacements. There is a standard to be upheld and they just couldn't reach the bar. We shouldn't condemn the replacement Officials for the job they did nor should we praise them for it. But we should laud them for being willing to step into a hostile environment and do a job where you simply never win. We should thank them for opening our eyes to the difference in calibre of officiating from a professional Official, to the next group in line.

Thank you replacement Officials, and I mean this in the best way possible....I hope we never meet again.