There has been a lot of talk about referees and sports officiators in the sports world. The replacement refs in the NFL have caused quite a stir. I am here to tell you that whether they are professional, replacements, or officiating a local rec league, all officials are going to make terrible calls.

The replacements made some questionable calls in the Green Bay and Baltimore games (that kick was good, by the way), and that’s why there is no longer going to be any more replacement refs in the NFL. Can you imagine what would happen if every official in the wide, wide world of sports (if you get that reference, you get a gold star) got immediately fired for every awful call they made?

When my brother was a senior in high school, he got a red card in soccer, as a keeper, for protecting himself. If you ask any person at the game that day, they would tell you that was a horrible call.

Last week in my slow-pitch game, the ref was calling pitches that were strikes that were essentially unhittable pitches. There were a lot of people in that game who were upset at the ump.

In little league games, the parents yell at the officials all the time. That never made sense to me, because the kids barely know how to play the game, let alone worry about minute details in the rules.

Horrible officiating and questionable calls are a part of sports. I don’t think I have played a soccer, basketball or softball game without at least one questionable call (there is always more than one) that gets the athletes, fans and coaches a little riled up. Even though there are questionable calls, the game goes on. The coaches still coach, the players still play, and the fans still watch the game.

The game goes on and the officiating sucks, so what do we do about it? We complain and we whine, that’s what we do. Where does whining and complaining get us? It gets us nowhere. We get so upset and we take it so seriously. That’s part of the fun. Getting upset and having horrible calls makes the games more entertaining.

There are going to be horrible officials at any level of sports. Honestly, I am happy that the replacements are gone, but we shouldn’t be expecting the professionals to make perfect calls. I am anticipating horrible calls that cause an uproar. There is not going to be a huge difference between the two. There is only going to be a noticeable one.

Officials are horrible in every sport. There are always going to be questionable calls that make people angry. We just have to accept it and enjoy it.