Do we need technology to ensure that every unfair act goes unchanged? Can we — with all our technology and gadgets — make everything fair? Even if we can, should we?
VAR, DRS, Instant Replay, red or green “bricks.” These programs and others not mentioned are now part of the professional and amateur sports world, through which coaches and players can challenge an official’s call. Rules for these challenges exist, but contests are stopped while off-site officials review the on-site action frame by frame to determine whether the call is correct. The recent World Cup has widely demonstrated how its Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is used to “correct” referee mistakes.
While no fan, player, or coach supports an official’s mistake that determines the outcome of a game, does the widespread use of technology to “second-guess” an official’s call help athletic contests?[
VAR (photo, Metro)
I heard a great acceptance speech several years ago at the induction to the Virginia Wrestling Hall of Fame. A Tidewater area high school coach said he had taken his team to a tournament in North Carolina.
It was the 1970s, and the coach recounted how coaches disputed calls. A coach would call an official over to the scorer’s table and ask for an explanation. During this particular match, he disputed a call and rushed to the table with his rulebook open, citing what he viewed as photographic proof that the official had made the wrong call.
The official listened to his objection, looked at the photograph in the rule book, and said, “Yeah, coach, but in that picture they ain’t moving.” He then returned to the mat to officiate.
Here’s another angle on officiating from back in the day. “Mike” was officiating in a highly competitive match in Northern Virginia when he saw a well-regarded coach stand from his corner chair and walk towards the scorer’s table. When he noticed “Mike” had seen him walking towards the table, the coach moved his hand as if slapping away a nit, and then sat back down in his chair.
The next weekend, “Mike” and the coach were at another tournament, and Mike asked the coach about the incident and what he was doing. The coach told Mike that he had indeed disagreed with his call and just wanted Mike to know he objected.
One reason for encouraging young people to be involved in sports or other activities is that, by joining a team, be it a wrestling team or a wind ensemble, the youngster will learn life lessons and skills that he or she can use in “real” life. By practicing, being part of a larger group, making mistakes, helping teammates, and failing, a youngster or an older person can learn and improve.
Perhaps the adage, “You learn more from failure than success,” is true. So, in all competitions, we should trust the officials, including the judges, in music, dance, visual art, and sports.
I appreciate the value of technology. Having coached track and field before the use of cameras and advanced timekeeping, I know the advantages those improvements have brought to sports, especially running and swimming. As an official at races, I saw inconsistencies between a sprinter’s placement and their handheld time more than once.
Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images and published by the National Sports Journalism Center
No doubt, mistakes were made there as in other sports. But we were all operating under the same rules, with the same officials. We coaches managed, as did our players. A Florida coach I know told his sons not to get accustomed to losing, but to know they would lose because, at some point, everybody loses. Sometimes a loss would come from a bad call by an official or a poor decision by a coach.
Consider England’s recent loss in the World Cup. As a wrestling coach, I told my wrestlers to try not to let a match be so close that an official’s mistake would cost them.
But think about where we stand today. A batter steps out of the box and taps his head, or a wrestler looks to his coach, motioning for him to throw the red/green foam brick onto the mat in protest.
Worse yet, someone with enough power can request that an organization review a call video to justify it or not. Frame by frame, fast-paced action is examined and then possibly overruled, even when the call was made on the spot in the heat of the moment.
I know that folks want everything in life to be fair, even youth sports and activities, but do we need technology to ensure that every unfair act goes unchanged? Can we — with all our technology and gadgets — make everything fair? Even if we can, should we?
In my view, allowing a player or coach to immediately question a call and halt the contest is an overuse of technology. I suggest that the organizations that oversee the various sports and activities use available technology to review officials’ calls or judgments, much like a peer review or an appeals court. So, if several complaints are made about a particular official, then the governing body can use its technology to review the calls.
But that’s not happening. Why? In our rush to make everything fair, we may be robbing athletes and performers of all ages of the chance to grow and get better in their chosen activity.
A big lesson for living this life is that sometimes life isn’t fair. So let us work to make it just, even if we can’t make it perfectly fair.
