Sports

Referees ruin game for everyone

Paul Dehner Jr.

Hating referees is a time-honored tradition in sports.

Seemingly no characteristic is off limits. Vision. Hygiene. Right to live.

And has anyone ever not specified which official they were talking about by referencing fat rolls?

According to fans, referees are ugly, obese, blind and always on the take.

All the Wildcats faithful, players and coaches clearly verbalized their opinions of the referees’ performances Saturday.

It ended up a 53-47 Wildcats win and one that pulled South Georgia within two games of first-place Florida (6-1), which lost to streaking Tennessee Valley (5-3) on Saturday.

After the game, a small percentage of talk centered around the inspired performance of a Wildcats team under a midseason pressure-cooker.  Some focused on the fact P.J. Berry may, in fact, be Superman as the undershirt he exposed after the highlight of the night, game and season implied.

Most, however, focused on the officiating. To call their performance mediocre would be an insult to mediocrity everywhere.

They sent a normally mild-mannered coach, in the Wildcats’ Derek Stingley into a rage of emotion normally relegated to the WWE.

“And all (the referees) can say is ‘It’s my fault, I made a bad call, they are going to grade us,’ ” said Stingley, venting intense frustration after the win. “Great, but I am getting graded for wins and losses and I want to still have a job the following year. I can’t go off of it being their fault, their mistakes.”

Stingley was right. This was bad. And not just toward South Georgia. Both teams were victims of terrible calls. And, quite frankly, bad calls happen.

They should be excused. These guys are human.

But this was not necessarily about what the flags were thrown for, but how many were tossed. The barrage of boos that reigned down upon the officials may have been out of frustration, but not from on the field. More than likely they came from frustration in their children falling asleep in the seats.

Here is the game of arena football; meant to be a blend of the most exciting offensive elements of hockey, basketball and football, yet, it is playing out at the same pace of a game of a cribbage between two retirees on the boardwalk.

In all, there were 18 penalties called on Saturday. Fifteen were called last week in the game between the Wildcats and Vipers. Florida and South Georgia combined for 22 penalties three weeks ago.

There is an average of about 90 plays per game.  Figure in plays called back by penalties and that is 18 percent of snaps ending with yellow flags.

Add in countless huddles and neverending “Jeopardy!” music and you have games pushing into more than three hours.

All rhythm, flow and excitement is sucked out of the fast-paced game with every floating yellow flag.

“I don’t understand why they don’t let us just play football,” Stingley said. “If they would let us just play the game which we are out here to do instead of them trying to take over the game — yeah they can control the game, but let the plays happen. You are making the game 3 1⁄2 hours long if you continue to throw the flags.”

The type of compulsive flag throwing that we have seen in the Albany Civic Center this year makes an enjoyable game boring.

The fact that neither Berry’s 14-broken tackle kickoff return nor the defense’s goal-line stand in the fourth quarter counted for anything is a tragedy of epic proportions.

The flags called could be thrown, but shouldn’t have been. If the game of arena football  wants to continue its league mantra of being dedicated to the fans, its officials need to be dedicated to them as well.

Throwing a flag on 18-percent of snaps makes fans not want to come back. It makes the game about the refs instead of about the players.

I hate to complain about referees. It is inherently cliché and something, honestly, fans are much better at than I. But after what we have seen, the fans must be heard.

If they are not, there won’t be any left to criticize the back fat of the back official.

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