The Student Newspaper of High School for Excellence and Innovation

By Dayron Cabral

Sports fans are hypocrites. We demand perfection from officials until a bad call helps a GOAT. From Maradona’s hand to Jordan’s push off, we have spent decades letting legendary moments overwrite the actual rules of the game.

 If we continue to excuse bad officiating just because it makes for a good story, then we aren’t just watching sports. We’re watching a scripted drama where the rules are optional and the stars are untouchable. 

This situation gets even more absurd on the level of our schools, since our “integrity” entirely depends on whose jersey we’re wearing. We all take a full week of insulting the referee online if a mistake costs us the game, yet we will be the first to brag about how the “bad officiating cost them” if the same thing happened to our competitors.

 Our problem isn’t that we hate mistakes from referees, our problem is that we hate paying for the mistake. Nothing will ever change if we would rather have the “legendary” game than play by the rules. 

For another perspective on this issue, I interviewed Jimmy Devora, a HSEI student and sports fan.

• DC: Can you recall a moment where a bad call seemed to stem from a misunderstanding of the rules rather than just a human error? 
• JD: There was a perfect game in baseball and the umpire made a bad call to end it 
• DC: In your opinion, how much do you think one “bad call” can truly change the outcome of a school game compared to professional sports? 
• JD: It’s heavily dependent on which ever team wins. 
• DC: How do you feel when you see adults or parents yelling at referees over a call during a student game? 
• JD: I think that is justified to want the calls to be in favor of what team you’re cheering for especially if your kid is playing. 
• DC: Do you think school sports should use more technology (like video replays) to fix bad calls, or does that take away from the spirit of the game? 
• JD: Of course they need to implement technology! Because students need the right calls. 
• DC: If you were a referee for a day what do you think would be the hardest part of making split second decisions while everyone’s watching? 
• JD: If all eyes were on me, the hardest part would be remaining calm and making the best calls 
• DC: Do you think a bad call can actually motivate a team to play harder and win? If so, can you think of a moment where it happened? 
• JD: Yes, I think it can. This season in baseball when we were playing against Randolph, the umpire made a bad call which made us want to play harder and make up for it. I hit a home run!