Professional Sports Officiating

The inconsistencies that skew the the outcome of games

Officiating in the NBA, NFL and MLB have seemingly become worse over the years. Hence the installation of rules such as coaches being able to ‘Challenge’ the outcome of decisions made on the field or court of play. Don’t get me wrong, officiating professional sporting events or any sporting event is not an easy task. You are always going to have one side or the other that will express their displeasure with the outcome of a call or decision made throughout a game. There is no getting around that.

Watching sports for my entire life, you start to understand the rule changes that are being made and why officiating changes along with that. For instance, in the NBA the ‘Hand Check’ foul. You used to be able to place your hands on the player you are guarding… to an extent. Now, the NBA has moved away from allowing hand checking when playing defense. With the new rule change, referees are forced to call a foul when they deem a defender is using hand checking to stay in front of their opponent. Obviously understandable with the way the rules are stated in the NBA. I have no problem with that.

The problem comes when inconsistencies arise and when a referee’s decision or indecision influences the outcome of a game. In both the NFL and NBA, every rule favors the offense. The defense’s hands are…