Will B. On my soap box

I have been noticing more and more just how bad some of the refs are at the football games and I am not the only one. It’s not all the refs but the ones in question always seem to be coming from Abilene. When I first moved to Olney about seven years ago and began attending games, several people had told me that some refs had it in for Olney High School teams – or at least ignored many obvious calls. I brushed it aside thinking it was just people mad about ref calls.

Fast forward seven years and now I am a believer, having had many discussions with countless locals about the bad ref calling and all of them had come to the same conclusion: most of these refs came from Abilene. I tried to figure out why and can only assume that at some point in the past something must have happened to make the refs this way. This is kind of beside the point I am getting at, though.

Coming more toward the point, I made a comment on social media about a recent game with obvious problems with refs ignoring calls against the Cubs. Many people messaged me agreeing but I always get the one or two people saying we should not focus on this and it’s not good for the players, some saying it should be about no excuses and keeping the players heads in the positive. I really take offense to this way of thinking, although a call here and there getting missed blatantly ignoring calls over the course of a game can lead to players getting really hurt, especially when personal fouls like face masking are not being called. We had several injuries that game.

When the refs ignore calls for the whole game it gives the signals that it’s ok to carry on with the personal fouls and then they escalate and secondly it teaches the kids that it’s okay to break the rules if the person in charge is on your side.

I am usually the last to make social media posts about refs but on occasion I do make them when I see a game that is out of control because of refs. I understand the point of view about staying positive and not laying blame on refs but it seems the same people never see the problem with not having accountability for the refs as well. Everyone is accountable to someone and the refs need this as well in my opinion. I grew up playing sports and my coach had a saying when it came to bad ref calls: “Don’t leave the outcome of a game in the refs’ hands,” meaning leave everything on the field and don’t let a few bad calls be what chooses the outcome of the game. I still believe that is true but enough is enough with the grudges against Olney from some refs.

This is Will B saying, see you under the Friday Night Lights.