Referees Face Verbal and Physical Abuse from Hostile Fans, Coaches and even Players
The abuse and harassment that basketball officials deal with on a regular basis.
It was Sunday afternoon and I had just finished officiating a 16U AAU basketball championship game. I do what I regularly do, take off my stripes, put my slides on, gather my belongings and walk out the gym. But this time was different, very different. As I am making my way out the door an angry mom and her son, who just played in the game, approached me to voice their displeasure with how I officiated the game. The player began to threaten me saying, “I’ll beat that refs a**”, while having to be restrained by his mother. I managed to ignore the whole situation and get in my car. However, as I was driving away the mother and her son picked up Gatorade bottles and food condiment packets and proceeded to throw them at my car as I am driving away. That was the first time I had been physically and verbally harassed by a player or a fan and I knew it most likely wouldn’t be the last.
Being a basketball referee is one of the toughest jobs to be good at due to the overall speed of a game and how a referee has to make a decision on a specific call in a split second. There have been countless instances where officials have to be escorted to their car for safety precautions because of how outraged fans become with their performance during a game. Recently, in the past month, I had to be escorted to my car after I had just finished calling a high school region semi-final game that went down to the wire and I had made a controversial call. These instances occur all the time where a referee’s safety is in jeopardy by fans who take it to the extreme. Putting on the stripes means you are an authoritative figure in a game environment. However, once you take that shirt off you’re just a regular person and should not have to worry about your life being in danger.
A fan’s passion about the game and their hometown team is welcomed and often admired. However, what some fans fail to realize is that there is a fine line between passion and flat out abuse towards referees. Some of the statements like “You’re f****** horrible” and “What are you f****** blind?” are what refs hear on a regular basis. This behavior from fans is completely unacceptable and a big reason as to why so many officials hang it up after a short stint in the profession. A recent survey by the National Association of Sports Officials stated that, 57% of officials say that a decline in sportsmanship from fans, coaches and players is a big reason why they find themselves in abusive situations and is quickly getting out of control.
Last summer, one of my closest friends was officiating an AAU game where things got out of hand and he was physically assaulted by one of the teams that was playing in the game. He was asked what events led to the players attacking him, “The players were confrontational the entire game”, “they were hoping to entice a fight”, “eventually I gave the player a technical, ejecting him from the game and he tried to bump me on his way out and squared up on me”. He was also asked if this incident has changed him, if he’s more alert or cautious now, “I continue to call the same way. I feel that I could’ve handled that situation better by walking away. I always stay alert”, “if anything should be changed it should be that these tournaments should make sure they have security.”
Every time an official puts that shirt on, they’re a target. People believe that we’re their personal punching bags and expect us to “just take it”. Every one wants to believe that we’re robots and we should be perfect and never mess up. Referee’s are only human, we miss calls and get calls wrong just like players miss layups and turn the ball over or coaches forget they have a timeout left in a close game. Do refs want to be perfect? Yes. Is it possible to be perfect? No. If the roles were reversed most of the people that chastise referees would be ready to fight the first person who scolds them. So as the old saying goes, “before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes”, so the next time you decide you want to berate an official, don’t.
Brandon Jack. From Atlanta, GA. Senior at Morehouse College. GHSA Basketball Official
