The controversial call between the Packers and Seahawks leading to a new collective bargaining deal for NFL referees last season. Photo courtesy The Washington PostYou either love or you hate referees. There is no indifference for fans. A call in favor of your team and they’re your favorite person on the field, a call against it and they are your sworn mortal enemy. Some referees and umpires even get hate mail for calls they’ve made such as umpire Don Denkinger or the crew of the controversial Monday night football game last year between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers.
When one call can change the outcome of a game or the referees try to make themselves the story it’s usually not a good thing. NBA referee Tim Donaghy even got caught up in a betting scandal fixing games. It’s certainly one of the most controversial and pressure-packed jobs someone can have.
Intermural referees here at ASU don’t get hate mail, and situations don’t escalate to national prominence, but refereeing the games is still not an easy task.
Criminal justice freshman Clint Cavey refs volleyball, basketball and softball at the downtown campus. Cavey found the job during a career fair at the beginning of the year and said he knew it would be something “easy and fun” but could still make money at the same time. He gets paid the Arizona minimum wage of $7.80/hour.
The refs are trained when each new sport begins. They sit together, go through Powerpoints, and eventually do some drills after the presentation.
“Usually I only feel pressure when I am refereeing a sport for the first time,” Cavey said. “I am just getting a hang of the speed and emotions of the players. Once that is out of the way, I'm usually having a good time with no worries.”
Any sporting event is intense given the nature of competition and occasionally there are some complaints about the referees. “During basketball, I would run across a lot of ‘whiners’ or people that don't blame themselves for being bad at basketball, so they choose to blame me,” Cavey said.
Some crazy things happen during games and referees have to adapt. Professionally some things that come to mind include the Steve Bartman incident during the 2003 NLCS. Cavey described an incident while calling a softball game in which a ball bounced off a gazebo in fair territory and then landed in foul territory. He called the ball fair but another referee disagreed, but Cavey ended up being correct after asking a supervisor. “We are told to always be confident with your calls, as wrong as they may be, I feel that I do a good job underneath the pressure,” Cavey said.
Sometimes calls are even life changing. Take Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga for example. Galarraga, pitching for the Detroit Tigers against the Cleveland Indians, had a perfect game through eight and two-thirds innings pitched. A slow roller on the infield led to a close play at first base. Joyce called Indians runner Jason Donald safe but replays later showed that Donald was in fact out which would have given Galarraga the perfect game.
Referees and umpires can’t always be perfect. This is what instant replay is for. I personally am not a fan but that’s a post for another time. I just think everyone needs to remember that they aren’t just objects, referees are people and have feelings under those blue or zebra striped shirts.
If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see me write about or cover this semester, have a comment about a recent post or simply want to talk sports, contact me at nkruege1@asu.edu or via Twitter @npkrueger
