"fanboy" with a question -- and then i'll leave
 

full disclosure...i am in your lexicon a fanboy. i found this site following a link from the Xavier basketball site. i'm an OSU fan so i had an interest in all the Oden/intentional discussions.

my question comes after hearing all the talk after that game; and now i'm seeing postings from UT fans about how "unfair" the officiating was, and how the refs "handed the game to OSU." how do you respond to the frequent comments that say refs favor the favorites, or they favor the name players, or even the outlandish stuff like "CBS wants the big names to stay in the tournament."

i know you guys have thick skins and probably learn to just blow off a lot of nonsense, but i'm honestly curious how you respond to those kinds of blanket statements? i've yelled at a ref or two in my life, but never did i think that in the split second between seeing something and blowing their whistle they considered who it was, how famous they were, how much money they controlled, etc.

hope my fanboy quotient wasn't too high. i've been in advertising for over 20 years and it always gets on my nerves when others treat it like a hobby that they could do if they just had some extra time.

You just consider it stupid fan behavior. It's part of the credibility issue that most fans have when they watch a game. They have a great passion for their team. So they struggle with the idea that anyone else could watch the same game and not pick a side.

Truth is we couldn't give a $hit who wins. :)

It's like when you go to the zoo and the monkeys get all excited when you come too close to their cage. You don't take the monkeys seriously, you just laugh and say "stupid monkeys".

Well, being in advertising maybe you wonder how you can get a beer ad on their behinds...anyway I think you get the idea.

Sarcastic response: You're right, there's a secret conspiracy that no ref has ever admitted to publicly until now.

The respectful response is reserved for those who will actually listen and pay attention. Sometimes, however, it will turn into the sarcastic response very quickly.

Typical response: :rolleyes:

ok so i didn't go away like i said...
 

when you say there is a "respectful response" do you mean there is a response based on whatever the specific situation is, or there is blanket response? if it's the latter i'm curious what it is. again, my intent isn't to challenge, just trying to understand the dynamic better.

It's the former, and usually comes in a live discussion with someone. It's rare, though, because the people who honestly think the refs are out to screw their team aren't really amenable to a decent discussion about it. They're definitely not going to listen to anything we say. There's no blanket response, other than, "Look, these guys get evaluated on every call and no-call. They have to answer to league commissioners and NCAA evaluators for everything they do during the game. There is no way they're getting away with inserting bias into their games. If the conspiracy were as big as it would need to be to work, then someone would have flipped by now and come clean. Honestly, the CIA and mob get leaks regularly, do you think the NCAA and/or CBS would be better able to control leaks than an agency full of government spies?"

At lower levels up to high school the fans, as long as they do not get personal and way out of line the response is none.
If they get way out of line then they could get to see the outside of the building and what ever punnishment the local administrators deem necessary.

This would include some high school venues also but in most cases at this level and above you tune them out and /or tell jokes about them at halftime.
did you hear the one about the fan that ... :D

Two fans walked into a bar ...:p

It comes with the territory and you have little control over them. If you get directly involved with them they win. It is best to let others handle it if possible.

The bottom line is that most officials pass a lot of schools to work at the school they are currently working. This is at least true at the HS level. At the HS level I might not see a particular team for several years after a single game.

At the college level there is much more accountability and more scrutiny to calls and situations during games. Officials will not stay around if they are screwing one school over another. There is too much money involved and too many good officials waiting in the wings.

Peace

I start off respectful but sometimes (most times, really), fans don't want to hear a professional, non-bias response. They are hoping that someone like Old School will chime in and say "Yeah, where I'm from you don't make that call. I did it once and I had a gun pulled on me in the parking lot and I had to use my special stare to disarm the unhappy fan."

OH is right with regard to behavior during games. My posts here were in reference to discussions off the court with people who know I ref.

thanks guys...
 

appreciate the responses. my curiosity has been satisfied.

now about this whole swallowing your whistle late in the game...

(just joking...smart *** irish coming out in me)

Go away, fanboy.

Oh -- to be clear, I'm answering your question, not directing that statement at you.

You can't respond to blanket statements made by that type of fanboys. They simply will <b>not</b> believe anything that you tell them. You can cite rules from here to next year and it don't make no nevermind to them. We have two choices here. We can ignore 'em completely, or we can make it uncomfortable enough here for them to leave and never come back(hopefully).

Btw, there are fanboys....and there are fanboys. Some are absolutely no problem at all. They are just passionate followers of their favorite team. There's quite a few regular posters on the forum that would fit into that particular bracket, including myself. What this genus of fanboy doesn't do is denigrate and automatically assume that the mean old officials, umpires, etc. are out to deliberately screw their favorite team. This kind of fanboy will debate plays quite hotly at times, but they always remember that the officials in the game they are discussing are human. Humans will miss a call, screw up a call, mess up a rule and ....well....act humanly sometime. Any fanboy of this ilk, and that includes yourself by the questions that you are asking, that comes here asking an honest question without the objective of simply crapping on the officials will usually receive an honest, respectful answer. They should, anyway. The other kind of fanboys however that come here just to dump on officials simply get the respect and the response that they deserve.

Welcome to the forum and please feel free to ask any questions that come into your mind. You know the groundrules now.:)

My typical response to comments about the refs costing someone a game is to ask them which official won their last game for them...usually gets a blank look and "Huh?", and then I tell them "Well, if the refs last night cost your team the game, but you won on Thursday night, one of those refs helped you win. Who was it?"

Pretty much ends the conversation every time...

Quite honestly, I was "rooting" for Tennessee. Except for possible 1 or 2 calls I think they missed (and that's not a bad number), I think Tennessee received a very fair job of officiating....particularly when you consider that Oden was on the bench most of the night with foul trouble. Hard to say the refs were favoring OSU when their star player had so many fouls. In fact, on the ones I questioned most, all but one favored UT.