Why do officials...

[futuredoc2014]

Originally Posted by mj

Yeah I've heard this one before too. So when we are watching teams warmup, no one knows who the adults are in the black jackets?

I think it's someone silly too but whatever.

I share that though. When I was a student athletic trainer, I asked our AT why the referees wore jackets. he said it was so no one could identify the refs when they enter. I responded that A.) We all know that the serious looking guys who are walking around the court in all black are referees and B.) no one really cares. It's not like soccer where the referees lead the teams onto the field. No player or coach or fan ever says "hey look, it's the ref!" (except probably young children). However, it does help when one works in the inner city where everyone wants to hustle the ref just because they [think they] can. I guess, though, that it is less distracting then the stripes.