THE GAG RULE

Letters

More Help Requested

In the 1/23 magazine, the Publisher’s Memo discussed the need for online concussion training designed specifically for referees. I applaud that effort and urge Referee to initiate a similar campaign for the creation of referee-centric training to address athlete sexual abuse. The currently available training is geared to coaches, team parents and others with pre-existing relationships with the subject athletes. This training is unnecessarily lengthy and not pertinent for referees. Please take the initiative to really help us referees with this important topic.

Jonny Joseph Los Angeles

SAY WHAT?

“The rules analyst job is not only the most overrated thing to happen in sports broadcasting, but it’s also become the most annoying thing in sports broadcasting. The rules analyst should be brought on only to explain a rule that the audience may not know or understand. That is the only circumstance where these guys might be useful.”

They Get It

“Right or wrong, for better or for worse, officials should be afforded the leeway to do their jobs. If there is reason to be critical, then it needs to be handled through proper channels. In-match heckling isn’t it. … All that frustration leads to by berating officials in real time is a decent possibility that you cross the line and the official requests your exit. Or at minimum, you sound completely irrational to everyone else.”

— Editorial in the Willoughby (Ohio) News-Herald

Snap Shot

Hopeful Sign?

Michael Smolens, Great Neck, N.Y., said he had driven by a Little League field “a bunch of times” before he finally stopped to read the sign posted by each dugout next to the bleachers. “If it makes one parent think twice about blurting out an unkind word,” Smolens wrote, “then the sign is well worth it. As a longtime official, coach and administrator who knows the inappropriate phrases uttered at contests, let’s hope lessons learned via signs like this spread throughout the country, helping more new officials have the desire to stay in this difficult business.”

They Like Us

SURVEY

Should officials be suspended for missed judgment calls?

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