OPINION

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By Braden Bell

As long as football and sports have existed, there have been fans, players, and coaches attacking and blaming the referees or umpires. Countless excuses are made, using referees as an explanation for losses or game-changing plays. These arguments occasionally have merit, and bad calls do happen often, which leads to questions: Are these missed or incorrect calls ever intentional? And can a sport relying on solely human judgment be impartial? Is there a solution to eliminating bias and incorrect judgment from any sport, or are those factors simply a part of the game?  

As a football player and fan myself, I often find myself yelling at referees at all levels, from my brother’s Middle School Cub football games to the NFL. As much as I may believe in the moment that any lousy call is a deliberate attack on me and my team, these types of calls do not happen as often as many think, at least according to the NFL and NCAA. These two athletic governing bodies release significantly fewer statements or reports on biased referees, compared to the vast amount of third-party reports on the matter. 

For example, online betting website Time2Play uses statistics and equations from Pro Football Reference, an in-depth NFL statistics website, to track biases that NFL referees may demonstrate. They have found that there is a significant difference between certain teams, and there is a considerable gap between the teams with the most penalties called against them and the teams with the least. 

Image credit: Time2Play with statistics from Pro Football Reference.

They also tracked which referees were partial to a certain team, which showed that teams most favored by a certain referee were on average positively biased for across the season. The statistics lend credence to the argument that significant favoritism does exist within the NFL, and that there is more going on than just human error.  

Image credit: Time2Play with statistics from Pro Football Reference.

The question now becomes: What can be done to eliminate consciously biased referees from the sport and create a more fair environment?

Human error and judgment are, without a doubt, a part of the game. However, the question of automating aspects of the game often arises when talking about creating a more perfect environment. Many of the most popular soccer leagues have automated their offsides calls to be hyper-accurate, which has sparked heated debate over whether that is an improvement or a detriment to the game.  

I believe that automating things such as the chain gang, which keeps track of downs and the yards remaining towards a first down, would infringe on the tradition and the element of the game that is imperfect judgment. I believe that it is important to keep some natural leeway in the game, and that it makes it less robotic and more interesting. However, the line needs to be drawn at intentional, game-changing calls toward specific teams based on personal preference. I am not a fan of automating any aspect of the game, but I think reforms to what referees are assigned to certain games should take place, at the very least.  

Bleacher Report reported that referee Brian Stropolo is a very outgoing and active New Orleans Saints fan who was assigned to a Saints game. Stropolo found himself removed from the game and under league review—not for being potentially biased, but for releasing his game assignment publicly on social media prior to when that information was published by the NFL. He had many social media posts of him decked out in Saints attire, which were obviously monitored by the NFL, yet he was still assigned to the game of his favorite team. This is an issue and an oversight by the NFL.

There is also the data presented by Time2Play that shows referees’ partiality towards one team.  The fact that all of this information is readily available to the NFL, yet they have taken few steps to keep those referees away from their favorite teams, is a major problem in need of reform.  

Simply shuffling the assignments around to keep referees away from their favorite teams is all that would need to happen. No referee needs to get in trouble for having a favorite team and being partial towards them, because it is something that is hard to control when given the power to help the team you care about.  The problem is with the league and their assigning of referees. I believe that one simple change could create a much fairer environment and eliminate lots of unneeded speculation and argument about partiality with referees.         

Featured image credit: Keith Allison via Wikimedia Commons.