5 minute read
LAW
Outside Court Boundaries
By Alan Goldberger
“It is not the place of the Court to call balls and strikes. Nor will this Court review game tapes to determine the quality of a penalty or a personal foul or decide whether a game winning shot was taken before or after the final buzzer sounded. To the contrary, it remains the responsibility of game officials — not judges or justices — to referee secondary school athletics events. Indeed, we recognize the indispensable role played by game officials in secondary school athletics — we do not marginalize that role, nor do we usurp the essential authority vested in these officials as they referee athletic competitions.”
— Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
At all levels of sport, officials find their calls argued by players, challenged by coaches, criticized by spectators, derided by commentators and, sometimes, overturned by judges. That last one does not work very well. As the pages of this magazine have reported over the years, lawsuits seeking to have onfield decisions of officials overturned are almost uniformly rejected by the courts. Even when judges grant a player’s or school’s request to reverse a call, such as a “next-game” suspension that follows an ejection for flagrant misconduct, such judicial bloopers are generally reversed by appellate courts.
For this reason, officials should take heart: Appellate court judges know a thing or two about “bad calls” — especially since their business is determining whether to reverse or modify incorrect decisions of other judges. Part of knowing your business is knowing what’s not your business. As a result, American courts — most of the time — rule that the legal system is not equipped to referee competitive sports. While this recognition may seem fairly obvious to those of us who are equipped to referee competitive sports, lawsuits challenging the decisions of game officials — from youth sports to professional sports — are filed every single year. Teams, players, coaches and even spectators have joined this parade.
Still, American courts nationwide almost always decline to act as postgame referees. State Supreme Courts have upheld officials’ calls (and even an occasional rules gaffe) against legal challenges in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Other courts in many states have done the same.
In a number of cases, the definitive “call” may be made by the appellate court after a local judge deemed it within his or her province to flout the rule (to which all parties have agreed) by issuing an injunction that permits an ineligible studentathlete, suspended due to a flagrant or dangerous act, to play in the next game. As a result, lawsuits continue to be filed as the stakes of competition continue to escalate. Whether the call at issue is an ejection with subsequentgame suspensions, a flap over a rules modification or accommodation, or even a season ticket-holder claiming “fraud” because an official’s call resulted in a lost game, going to court is sometimes viewed as “justice” for those who believe “rules” are something for the other team to follow.
For the legal system to second-guess rulings on game situations made on the field by accredited officials charged with enforcing the rules would make the conduct of any game potentially so problematic and the outcome so uncertain as to make the sport an exercise in frustration instead of an exercise in, well, exercise.
Officials play a vital role in competitive sports — a role the legal system continues to consistently affirm. Associations and governing bodies must continue to do their part. If the officials’ authority to call the game is undermined, as one court said, “If we accept the fanatic about ‘kill the umpire,’ we will kill the game.” Alan Goldberger is an official and attorney from Fairfield, N.J. This column is for informational purposes and not legal advice.
Five Reasons Courts Should Not Reverse Officials’ Calls
Here’s why courts should let calls by referees and umpires stand: 1. American courts have a history of turning away those who ask judges to overturn a referee’s call in a game. And they should. Whether or not they feel a call in a game may have been incorrect, courts are unlikely to substitute their judgment for that of game officials, for some very persuasive reasons. Popular culture aside, “feelings” are not “facts.” Each sport has rules, and each sport has officials to enforce those rules. The rules, enforced by officials, using their experience, knowledge and judgment, are the cornerstones that make a game safe, fair and fun. 2. Through published rules and regulations, the educational institutions and sports organizations that govern sport afford their athletes a chance to compete safely on a level field, by agreeing in writing to play by written rules. Without officials, sports are just a pick-up game. 3. If officials’ calls in a game are open to a judge’s interpretation in a court of law, would only those who have the financial resources to sue be able to turn to the courts to correct an allegedly erroneous call by an official? And how would judges decide such cases? Would experts in the rules of a sport need to be hired and prepare reports for judges to consider? Would judges need “indisputable evidence” that a call is wrong, like a “replay official” in a black robe? Or would another legal standard apply? How would the situation be redressed? Would the game be replayed? 4. Sports are meant to be played and decided on the field or court. If judges replaced the game officials’ judgment with their own for one call in one game, they could be called upon to consider doing the same for any call in any game. Then, when judges act, their decisions may in turn be appealed to yet another court. 5. Finally, many sports have “rules” for rules. That is, if a coach believes a rule was misapplied by an official, he or she can initiate a timeout and request a review by the officials of the rule being applied. If the coach is correct, the enforcement can be modified, and no harm is done.
SOURCE: ALAN GOLDBERGER, SPORTS LAW EXPERT
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