Beastmode

Seems that juvenile adults are causing toxic environments for their kids with hooligan antics.

Indeed, parents and coaches lacking sportsmanship and civility may be to blame for a growing shortage of high school referees in California, according to reports.

“Yelling, screaming and berating the officials humiliates your child, annoys those sitting around you, embarrasses your child’s school and is the primary reason California has an alarming shortage of high school officials,” Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, wrote in a column posted by the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school sports.

Eighty percent of officials quit after two years, according to the National Association of Sports Officials, and 75 percent of officials said it’s because of the hostile behaviors of adults at games.
As The Modesto Bee reported, it didn’t matter what sport was involved, be it volleyball or soccer.

“I had a coach challenge me on a court and challenge me after the game,” said Jeff Spinelli, a basketball referee for 13 years until he quit this year. “He told me he was going to quit coaching to beat up officials he didn’t like. I called him for a technical foul and he almost incited a riot by his actions and not one person in the entire gym said anything to him or did anything.”

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/toxic...hortage-report

And what do people do when they get older? Emulate their parents and continue the tradition of attacking and berating referees. Same environment our refs were in maybe and didn't want to deal with it.

jeanpierre

Seems like when there's any kind of accountability or order, people lose their freaking minds lately...

TheOak

It is quite simple actually, Refereeing is knowing and enforcing rules. Today's generations are not capable of following or enforcing rules; in their mind, everything is malleable.

I saw a poll the other day about this generation believing it is more important for a statement to be socially acceptable than factual.

Beastmode

I bought a new rug this week but implemented a rule change on this one. I immediately placed the dog water bowl on the new carpet. A dog will not pee where it eats and drinks. So far so good.

NFL will have to implement a similar rule. Do not force refs to crap in their beds and force them to sleep in it. Especially in the playoffs. People are too vicious today. Designate specific locations, far away from where they reside.


As much as I am disgusted by the non call, I also have empathy for the refs. They were put in a horrible situation. If they make that call the rage where they live would be off the scale. At the L.A. airport, in their neighborhood, out shopping not to include social media. I do believe this is actually the why and the what of it all.

Rugby Saint II

I'll admit being a referee is tough. But at least in rugby we enforce referee abuse both on and off the field. If some one is abusive towards the referee the home team has to remove the spectator from the playing enclosure. If they can't control the crowd then they forfeit the match. It's amazing how respectful the fans and teams are.

I'll also admit there are some bad referees but we work to make them better through referee coaching and regular referee clinics. Not only that, rugby referees constantly discuss and study the game at tournaments where we share information and suggestions on how to improve our game.

The NFL is not consistent and rugby laws are very strict and is an old game with safety foremost in the referees mind. The NFL needs better training for their referees and possibly full time training and film study year round like we do.