Does officiating make you watch less sports?

[Welpe]

I'm not sure if it was officiating or just getting older but I've grown to appreciate a wider variety of sports for their own merits.

I've also become a much more dispassionate fan than I used to be and find I have a hard time listening to the generally clueless fans in the stands.

[Publius]

Originally Posted by Welpe

...I have a hard time listening to the generally clueless fans in the stands.

Based on the answers to the questions I ask one of my regular baseball partners who also referees basketball, I just know that any referee sitting near me in the stands at a HS basketball game wants to slap the snot out of me about three times per half.

[UMP45]

Being a sports official has taught me not to "bash" my brothers in other sports!

[kylejt]

Originally Posted by UMP45

Being a sports official has taught me not to "bash" my brothers in other sports!

See, I'm the opposite. I find it quite easy to smash basketball and football officials. They take so much grief from coaches, that us baseball umpires would eject for in a heartbeat, I've lost all respect for them. They allow themselves to be hollered for an entire game, yet we don't. I don't get that.

One my "favorite" things is to go watch a HS basketball game, and time how long it would take for me to EJ a coach. Most of the time, they wouldn't last five minutes.

But I don't focus on officials anymore, nor do watch any less sports. I am watching more college, and less pro stuff, though. After my own games, I do come home a flip on the end of a Padres tilt. (I love to suffer. I guess why I usually volunteer to do the plate, and root for the hapless Friars).