SIDELINE SLANTS- Excuse me, would you like a little cheese with your whine?

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JOE KLEINSASSER
When an official makes a mistake, how do you respond?

We all know how rabid fans respond, don’t we?

We know how many coaches respond, although sometimes we’re surprised.

We get to see how athletes respond. Like coaches, sometimes the response is one of disbelief. Other times the response is anger. Still other times, the call is accepted as part of the game.

We know how television responds to a questionable or bad call. They show replay after replay after replay. In fact, for all I know, Fox is still running replays of the pitch that was ruled to have hit White Sox batter Jermaine Dye in the World Series, when in fact, it hit the bat.

We don’t know for sure how officials respond, but sometimes they are in denial and other times they long for a mulligan or second chance.

Thanks to television replays, second-guessing calls in football, basketball and baseball has risen to new heights. No matter how many times TV announcers say that most calls are correct, the disputed calls are the ones that are run and re-run ad nauseum.

Officials have often said a game is well officiated when no one notices you’re there. With so many TV replays on close calls, forget about being invisible.

No matter how the official calls a game, he or she can’t win. When a game is called close, we complain that officials should let players determine the outcome of the game.

When a game is not called close enough, we complain that the officials let the game get out of control.

A former high school basketball coach confided to me that there were times he didn’t want officials to call the game close, and other times when he did. It depended on the ability of his team as well as the skill and size of his opponent.

Tell me how an official can come out ahead in that circumstance.

In reality, there is more common ground than you think among officials, players and coaches. The goal for all of us is to minimize or eliminate mistakes. While perfection is impossible, that’s what everyone strives for. The question is how we deal with the mistakes.

Officials in all sports strive to interpret the rules of the game as fairly and consistently as possible. The trouble is, few games are played consistently.

Plus, what an officials sees from his or her position on the football field or basketball court looks different to a fan in the stands or to a coach on the sideline.

It’s a matter of angles and perspective.

I’ve talked to an NFL official. You wouldn’t believe how much scrutiny they are under. Their every move and action on the field is seen by evaluators. Trust me. Few of us are scrutinized half as much in our jobs as NFL officials. If an official makes too many mistakes, they won’t work playoff games or they lose their job.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are consequences for making too many bad calls.

Of course, it’s impractical to evaluate high school officials to the same degree as professional officials. However, evaluations can be helpful.

I officiate basketball in one high school league that tries to have an impartial observer rate the officials at every game. The goal is two-fold-one is to give the supervisor of officials a relatively unbiased view of how the game was officiated, and second, to help the officials improve.

But what are we to do with a blown call? Once I told a coach who was upset with a call I made, “Don’t you think I wish I had it to do over?”

Fortunately that call wasn’t made at the end of a close game. Those are the calls we remember, but who is to say that calls earlier in the game aren’t equally as important?

The healthiest approach is to realize that an official’s call is only one of many factors that influence the final score. Of course, if you’re passionate about your team, it’s hard to be objective.

I have a theory. If we were as passionate about injustices in the world as we are about disputed calls in sports, the world would be a better place.

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