Referees struggle to keep respect amid growing hostility from coaches, players and fans.

[brahmanknight]

Honestly, I've never understood the appeal of being a game official. It seems like asking for trouble.

http://www.usnews.com/news/sports/a...-struggle-with-respect-amid-growing-hostility

Jimmy Woods has been a youth official for nearly 30 years, and he's lost count of how many football games he has refereed and how many times he's been yelled at, threatened or insulted.

Oh, he remembers the details. He has been surrounded by angry parents following games, told he "has no integrity" by coaches and cursed at as recently as this season by players and fans at a private high school in Little Rock.

"Unsporting behavior continues to be the main reason that people get out of officiating," said Mano, who noted that pay for his members ranges from roughly $50-$60 per game at the high school level to approximately $2,500-$3,000 for major college football games. "They worry about their safety, they worry about putting up with all that guff for $50 a game. Are you kidding me? That's why there are shortages of men and women who want to go out and officiate in a lot of parts of this country."

A call to NASO leads to a menu with multiple choices. The third option is the association's Assault Protection Program for its 22,000-plus members.

Don Boss, 64, has officiated a variety of sports over his 47 years in the business, and he's overseen high school and adult soccer leagues in Arkansas for more than 20 years. He assigns officials in the central part of the state and tries to weed out officials who might not be able to walk away from a heated situation.

"The problem isn't finding refs," Boss said. "The problem is finding good refs."

Boss has seen his share of incidents over the years — baseball bats being wielded as weapons, guns being shown, police standing by, referees being assaulted. Boss has a simple rule he takes with him onto the field, intended to keep everyone calm: "Everyone goes to work on Monday."

 

[UCFKnight85]

I used to umpire as part of a local volunteer organization that provides umpires for low income little leagues that can't afford to pay for umpires to do their games.

It was absolute shit. I did it for 8 games then called it a day , on account of the jackass, ignorant, loser parents that attend the games.

I honestly don't know why anyone chooses to be a youth league ref or an umpire and deal with parents. Just look around when you go out at all of the degenerates who have kids, then imagine those same degenerates going to a game where they believe their shit kid is a superstar and think that a youth game is equivalent to Game 7 of the World Series. Then imagine having to deal with those same degenerates as an umpire when their shit kid strikes out because he actually sucks.

In Miami they can't even bribe guys to referee youth football games due to the parents (er, criminals) that flood the stands and gamble on the games. Bad call? You're being followed to your car and threatened by a mob of idiots who lost money on a 12 year old football game.