STUPID SPORTS SH!T: BAD REFEREEING FTW!

by Chris Richardson, Intentional Foul

The act of a referee, by definition, is "a sports official usually having final authority in administering a game." But what happens when they do more than administrate a game? What happens when they just plain miss or blow a call? What recourse, besides the NFL and CFB's review system, can coaches and fans take when a referee is so abhorrently wrong, it affects the outcome of the contest you and your team are participating in?

Well, the short answer (and the long one, for that matter) is, "not much." If an infraction happens during the closing seconds and your umpire/referee/official doesn't call, no amount of replay in the world will provide the satisfaction you are looking for. I mean, I guess we can all throw things at these offending officials, but for some reason, people that do that are labeled as "idiots."

What about the dumbass blind mice who are paid to make the correct judgment? What does that make them? Human? But I'm the idiot for acting on my emotions in a human manner... OK, it should probably be noted that I do not condone the throwing of shit from the stands at officials or teams or anything for that matter.

But like Chris Rock says (kind of, anyway), "I'm not saying he should've done it, but I understand."

I'm not the only one either. As pointed out brilliantly by You Been Blinded, Charles Barkley has similar feelings and he's a would-be candidate for the Governor of Alabama:

Now, I'm pretty sure Chuck won't be running Mike Mathis over anytime soon, but you have to wonder what would make Barkley so upset he'd actually consider saying something like that on TV. Could it be that, in Chuck's eyes, Mathis was a piss-poor referee?

Of course, there are other examples. Many, many, many, many, many, many other examples. In fact, in the last two weeks, we've had THREE separate UCLA incidents and one involving the Lakers. Allow me to refresh your memory:





These are just three separate incidents (all involving LA teams... coincidence?) that have happened within the last month and I'm sure I'm forgetting a million others. So again, what can we do about this? As fans, well, we can always bitch and moan and maybe even write an email or two to a commissioner or some other sport dignitary, but let's be honest, besides not attending, our level of LEGAL recourse is limited.

However, I'm curious how many more of these types of incidents will occur before someone else loses their mind and throws a chair across the floor followed by pulling his team from the competition. I'm not sure how many more coaches can weather another 96-free-throws-in-four-games-for-Dwyane-Wade gifts from a league before someone revolts... Outright.

What's your call with all this bad refereeing going on?