Lets just let the poor guys be!

Well, I've had a lot of time to think about a few things since watching the Super Bowl last Sunday. I was hoping to see the Seatle Seahawks win the game, only because they were the underdog and have never won a superbowl before. My team is the Denver Broncos so I honestly didn't care who won the game. As I watched the game I saw several things that upset me. I didn't agree with some of the calls the officals made and unfortunately some of those calls did seem to change the flow of the game. After the game I steamed about why the referee squad was so terrible and like many other people in America felt like the Seahawks got the short end of the stick. This caused me to think back to several other games I have watched in the past year. The Troy Polomalu interception that was interperted as a incomplete pass, the whole situation with A.J. Pierzynski and the Angels in the ALCS, and many countless other times a bad call or something that I didn't agree with has happened.
I have had the opportunity to be a umpire for a little leauge baseball game and have been a referee in many basketball games. I would have to say that it isn't the most fun that I have ever had. I think I would even go so far to say that it sucked real bad, and that was only little leauge and church ball. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have the pressure that college and professional officals face on a regular basis. You know no matter what you saw or what happened your wrong. If its not the player, its the coach, and if not either of them then it is the assanine fans who some how know everything there is to know about sports because they watch it on tv or in real life sometimes. I think that we all need to stop focusing so much on the officals and get back to whats important the Game. Of corse there is the occasional idot offical like the crew who officated the Duke vs Florida State basketball game. If you read up on that you will see that some officals are just idiots and definately win games for some teams. But overall I think that the officals do a decent job.
Its a fact of life that superstars are going to get some calls that the normal joe shmoe would never get. There isn't anything that we can do about that and there never will be. I think the sooner we get back to the game and stop focusing on the officals the better off we will be. But to do that teams, coaches and fans are going to have to own up to a lot of stuff. Its true the officals did make some bad calls in the Super Bowl but that wasn't the reason that Jeremy Stevens dropped several passes that would have made a huge difference or the reason that Seattle missed 2 field goals as well. The referee botched the call on the Polomalu interception but had the Steelers lost the game it would have been because of their defense not being able to stop the Colts last drive or even because of the Jerome Bettis fumble near the end of the game. The umpire clearly made a bad call in the ALCS but even the Angels coach said that they couldn't blame the umpire for them loosing the series.
Unfortunately I don't see players, coaches or fans owning up to much of anything in the near future. Joey Porter and his idiot comment about the refs wanting the Colts to win their game is evidence of that. So I do think that the umpires and referees will be under continued scrutiny and pressure, to do something that is unhumanly possible except for one man, and that is be perfect. But in the mean time it sure would be nice to be able to watch a game and just watch a game.