Does officiating make you watch less sports?
 

I've found that with officiating, I'm so involved with games that I find it boring to watch games on TV or in the stands unless I'm observing another official. I think ever since I started officiating, I've watched fewer and fewer sports, anyone else feel similarly?

I haven't noticed a change in my viewing habits, either in person or on TV. I have noticed in addition to the teams I also pay attention to what the officials are doing as well.

I also have become aware that many of the announcers and fans around me usually have little to no idea of the rules, but haven't we all realized that?

It is harder to watch games that I want to watch during the specific sport season for sure, but it does not hurt my desire to watch things I would normally watch.

Peace

Some book I read had a quote to the effect of "Officiating sucks the 'fan' right out of you."

Some truth to that, I think.

If that means not watching in the way a typical dumbass fan watches, I like to think I'm the better for it.

After many years of officiating, playing and coaching, I can still enjoy watching the sports, however, what totally drives me crazy is the empty airheads that announce it.

Actually officiating has taught me to watch them more objectively just as you should be officiating. You can actually appreciate the actual art of the sport and the talent it takes to participate at any given level, more so than the Bull***T hoopla that goes on around it.

IMO.

YES. Absolutely!
 

Not only have I been too busy working games to watch TV, but I've lost all patience with broadcasters. They need to implement one of two policies: No comments about officials whatsoever, or educate each announcer on the rules and allow them to ONLY speak the truth.
I truly believe this would improve sportsmanship at all levels. Kids start playing at a young age, are impressionable and only know what they are told - whether it's factual or not.
Who else wants to advocate with us? This is on the top of my bucket list. It'll happen in our lifetime.

I definitely have lost interest.

I didn't even know who was playing in the Super Bowl!

But what irks me is the overpaid crybabies playing the sport.

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.

Like others, my passion for watching sports hasn't waned since I started officiating. But I do watch sports with a different perspective and mind set.

And it's always refreshing to see the big boys (and girls) miss calls, even at their skill level. It doesn't make me feel as bad when I do it. :)

The running joke at home, whenever my wife suggests taking a trip one of the minor-league parks as a temporary respite from weekend boredom, as we often did in our courtin' days, is "I don't watch live baseball unless I get paid to."

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.

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

No, I watch a lot of sports. But in baseball games I pay as much attention to the umpires as I do the game, makes it more interesting I think.

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).