Colin McEnroe Show: Referees: Sacrificial Lambs Of The Sports World
We talk with NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca and an NBA ref.
Published: Jul 11, 2011
Image
Penalty flag.
Photo:Flickr Creative Commons, hectorir
Audio Playlist
Colin McEnroe Show: Referees: Sacrificial Lambs Of The Sports World
New York magazine's often caustic Will Leitch thinks we should feel sorry for "umpires — lonely, underpaid men who spend their whole adult lives on the road, being called horrible names by strangers — are our sacrifice, roasted on a spit as we pray to the instant-replay gods. We understand that outrage is building so that its momentum will bring us the robot umps we all want and deserve. But you still feel bad for the men in blue who find a new reason to be screamed at every night."
I think he's right. But there's a kind of rage that boils up inside a sports fan when the blown call really hurts your team. And there are wounds that never heal. As a Phoenix Suns fan, I could still make myself mad about the fishy-looking suspension of Stoudemire and Diaw in the 2007. Presumably those guys are over it. They play for other teams now.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
Send to friend
Printer-friendly version
Comments
Post new comment