The Refs cheat!

It was one of the most highly anticipated games the Boise State Broncos were going to play.  A Top 10 team coming to play on ‘the Blue’.  Plus a heated rival, BYU!  It would’ve have been a packed house but this being 2020 the year of the coronavirus only 1,000 fans would be in the stadium. Lots of ‘smack’ from both sides on social media.  Enough of that let’s play the game!

BYU scores first, and BSU is driving, 3rd down and 1 year to go, BSU QB Jack Spears dives for the 1st down.  But he is hit hard in the head by a BYU player….Jack gets up and it is obvious that he has had his bell rung, and was told by the referee that he had to leave the game and get checked out.  Now the uproar from some the BSU faithful…cheap shot, helmet to helmet, intentional why isn’t that a penalty and here it comes ….the refs cheat! 

I get it, we all want our teams to win and to win championships and yes sometimes the officials calls don’t seem fair.  But please do not say that the refs cheat!  Full disclosure, I run the official time clock for the BSU home games so I am considered a game official.  I meet with the officials  before every game.  We go over all the rules of running the clock, when to start when to stop…etc.  In reading some of the social post I get the feeling that some think that the officials  all get together while they are having their pre-game meetings and decide then and there who’s going to win the game.  “OK, Bill. Make sure you call 5 pass interference calls on the Broncos, and Tom, make sure you don’t call anything on BYU.”  Sorry to burst your bubble, it doesn’t happen that way.  These officials have studied the rules of the games, and can recite each rule probably by heart.  They have no agenda.  Get this, they get paid no matter who wins! 

Let’s go back to the play where BSU QB got hurt, ok you call a penalty, now what?  Does this magically make Jack Spears not have a concussion?  I love the Broncos, and I love when they win and have great pride talking about the Broncos but sometimes the overzealous fans are a little hard to take.  Penalties are part of the game, some calls will go your way and some won’t. 

Just like life!  And remember Refs don’t cheat!