April 22, 2019 - Blind Refs

I am finally getting to the subject I was planning on writing about a couple of weeks ago… and realizing due to time and energy that it needs to be a “30-second timeout” as I am not sure I have a “full-timeout” available tonight… literally just got in from an 11-day worship tour and this old man is feeling it…


So straight to the point… do you ever feel like life is unfair? In the sports world there is always questioning of referees, and in today’s world of instant replays… reviews… multiple camera angels… etc., it seems that every game leaves one team complaining they were cheated.


This was evident in the NCAA tourney a couple of weeks ago… especially in the Auburn and Virginia game. Auburn seemed to have the game in hand, but Virginia made a great comeback. Auburn fans were infuriated and felt as though the referees made a couple of mistakes… wondering of the game was being called by three blind mice???


One of the supposed mistakes was on a foul called on an Auburn player that allowed a VA player to hit 3 free throws and send the game to overtime. (Yet that one didn’t have to many lasting complaints as the Auburn player clearly jumped into the VA shooter, not allowing him his landing space. Even former Auburn players were admitting it was a foul.)


But then the replays started of a play that led up to that point where a VA player clearly double-dribbled; it was one where no one seemed to notice it until the replay… but there was an infraction. But this took place at a time when it is common for people to say that refs should “let the players” decide the game and not call it so close (that is until it hurts your team.) And I am not sure if the refs just missed seeing it or if they were calling it loosely???


All of this to say that life is full of unfair times and we are responsible for how we handle it. After the Auburn game, their coach, Bruce Pearl, was quoted as saying, “The biggest point I want to make, and I'm sincere in this, I'm not just saying this because it's politically the right thing to say. There is human error involved in the game. Kids make mistakes, coaches make mistakes. Yes, officials will make mistakes. That's part of the game. Get over it… Sometimes they're going to go your way, sometimes they're not going to go your way. Are we going to give God less glory because we lost and ... only because we win? Stop. Grow up, this is part of the game.”


Sounds like Coach Pearl was channeling some of the Apostle Paul’s teaching: “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” (Philippians 2:14)


“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)


This week let’s focus on giving God glory in all circumstances… winning or losing!


Side note about the double dribble: My personal belief is that the ref simply let it go… because he had just let another call go that favored Auburn. Auburn was simply trying to slow Virginia down since Auburn had the lead… yet literally a split second before the no-call on the double dribble, there is a no-call on holding on the Auburn defender… (I even saved a picture of the player tugging on the jersey of the Virginia player, which could have caused the player to lose control of the dribble.) Maybe they simply were trying to just let the players decide it… And as Pearl stated, the game involves human error. The game, like life, is not about just individual plays… it is about the whole the game… 2 points in the first quarter are worth just as much as 2 points in the last quarter!