Yeah, the refereeing is probably as bad as I’ve ever seen it...from college all the way up to the pros. Key word being “seen it”.
I think an important thing to ask though is whether has gotten worse or has it always been bad and we just happen to notice it more because they have the drone cam, 25 cameras on every game, social media highlighting bad calls and of course the challenge that coaches now have to further amplify what they think are bad calls.
It probably hasn’t degraded all that much to be honest. Lester Hayes used to have so much stick-um on him that you wondered how much of his uniform was covered in the dirt from the Coliseum vs how much of it was stick-um. By the end of a game, I think it was Mark Clayton was covered in this gunk Hayes had pressed him so much. You’re not supposed to touch the receiver to the point to where you can transfer something that is inherently sticky from your body to his.
What we see are two things. First the inconsistency of the referees. Superstars get the calls; other players don’t. Mahomes (figuratively speaking) can do no wrong. Brady could do no wrong. The back-up linebacker for the Colts? He could get flagged for tying his cleats wrong. The second thing--and I think this is what really makes us think it is so much worse...there are too many damn talking heads highlighting anything that may be questionable. What’s the old saying about a tree falling in the forest? It doesn’t make a sound if nobody hears it. Well, if the tree fell and there were enough ex jocks commenting on it; you’d think the whole forest fell. Pre-game shows have like eight commentators.
And this is before you even get to the 2 or 3 guys in the booth or the people the six above interview.
I think the discussion is healthy for the sport though. Refs need to be recruited out of college just like players. Injured college athletes and players who couldn’t make a squad. They need to be able to keep up with Tereek Hill.
