Emma Ziccarelli

Recently there has been a huge spiral in referee biases throughout all levels of athletics, and has caused a great deal of anger amongst kids, coaches, as well as parents of players. Aspects such as pressure along with influence from social forces can lead to referees making unfair calls against or for a certain team. Referees tend to make biased decisions if these pressures occur, even if their behavior jeopardizes or could possibly have any effect on material playoffs. The expectation of a referee is to make timely decisions in a complex environment under difficult circumstances at some points. Although not everyone can agree and have the same opinion on every call that is made, the decisions and calls referees make can be critical for a team’s potential playoff win or their standings in general. This has not only been happening in major league and professional sports, but has also been skyrocketing at the high school level for all athletics. Referees at the high school level may not begin feeling biased towards or against a certain team at the start of a game, but a number of factors may change that throughout the game. For instance, if a coach or a player from a certain team continues to argue with the calls or decisions being made by the referee, they may change their opinions and start to think twice about which team they are making which calls for. Another factor that may sway the opinions of the referee and what calls they make is the roughness or rowdy behavior of the crowd. If referees hear distracting comments that are disrespectful towards the game or towards them personally, it may consciously or subconsciously affect their calls for the rest of the game. It has also been made clear that referees are more likely to target athletes that get a significant amount of playing time as opposed to their teammates. The more well known a player is, the more likely a referee is going to make calls for them or against them. In relation to this, if the same referee officiates multiple games for a certain team in a season, they are prone to remember the more well known and intense players which may cause them to single those players out before the game even begins. There are countless factors that affect the decisions and calls a referee makes at all levels of athletics, and they have slowly grown more clear over the years. Referee calls are important, and can be the sole reason a team wins or loses a game. As a result, referee bias is substantial and people are starting to realize it.