I'm Not Sorry For What I'm About To Say
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Sports

I'm Not Sorry For What I'm About To Say

I'm tired of working with sports officials who don't care.

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I'm Not Sorry For What I'm About To Say
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I won't apologize for what I'm about to say. It may upset you. It may offend you. It may anger you. You may not like me after I'm done saying it.

And quite frankly, I don't care. I am the type of person that will speak my mind. I won't do it in an offensive manner. I won't do it in a manner that requires me to call you names, insult your money or even insult your father. But I'm going to speak my mind. I'm going to say what I want to say. And I won't apologize for it.

I've come to the point in my life where I'm going to speak my mind. And quite frankly, although I'd like people to respect me, like me and want to be my friend, I'm not going to change who I am, what I say or who I'll be in order to confirm, get along or fit in. It's simply not going to happen. I've always had the attitude that if you can't accept me, I won't apologize. If you can't take what you see, you can gladly go find someone else, because that's who and what you're looking for.

I won't apologize for what I'm about to say. It's the truth. It's the way that I feel. And if you don't like it? You can politely kiss my ass.

I've been a sports official for years. I used to love it. I used to want to be there. I used to look forward to going out and officiating, but I've given almost all of it up. I'm disgusted with the assignors. If you don't kiss their ass, show up to all of their meetings and bow down at their feet, you're not going to work. They'd rather assign guys who officiate 20 basketball games in a week, are so physically tired, overweight and out of shape they can't make it up and down a court for a high school game and are out there for a paycheck. To them, it's about money; it's not about the kids and it makes me want to puke.

I used to officiate a lot. At one point, I was officiating seven sports; I've since quit almost all of them. These days, I will officiate hockey and a minimal amount of volleyball. The reason is quite simple. Guys are fat. They are lazy. They are out of shape. They officiate 20 games in a week. They collect a paycheck.

And they don't care. I've seen it. You've seen it. Hell, we've all seen it. The coaches see it. They'll see a certain guy or group of guys walk into a gym for a basketball tournament and groan. They will see certain guys walk onto a ball field and they will visibly grimace.

They know the deal. These guys will umpire seven or eight games in a day, collect their money and their strike zone will be all over the place. By the third or fourth game, they stop moving down the baselines. They stop talking to the kids. They stop talking to the coaches. And we all know those guys.

I'm not going to apologize for saying what I'm saying. It's the truth. And if you want to argue because you're a sports official and say that I should not badmouth another official, you might be one of those guys that is umpiring 20 games in a weekend, officiating 15 games of hockey in two days or you're one of those guys who are doing it for nothing more than the money. You know who I'm talking about. Maybe it's you. I won't apologize for what I've said, because we all know it's the truth. We know those guys. We see those officials. We watch what happens. And we know you'll collect your money and not care what happens.

I'm not that guy. I won't ever be that guy. I saw a guy like that today watching a college baseball game. He's fat. He's overweight. He's out of shape. And sadly, he's responsible for assigning a major metropolitan area for a variety of sports. But he also criticizes other officials. He tells them what he expects them to do. He tells them how he wants them to umpire. And he tells them what he thinks is right and wrong. In a case like that, he should be the best damn official on the field, on the court or wherever he officiates. And he's not.

I've seen that guy who will do seven or eight sports. We all know him as the "money guy" and everyone knows what he's there for: a paycheck. He doesn't care about the kids. He'll tell you he doesn't care. And I won't apologize for criticizing him. He's an insult to the game and he's an embarrassment to other officials. I'm disgusted to say that at one point and time I used to work with him. And I thank the good Lord in heaven I walked away from that. Because I used to hear "Oh God, it's that guy" and I always had this fear they were talking about me. Thankfully they weren't.

For the record, to officiate sports in the state of Michigan, it is $12 per sport and a $30 insurance fee. The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) will take your money but if you file an official report due to poor sportsmanship at a school, they won't email you, call you, text you or support you. If you eject players, you won't ever hear a word from them. They won't even take the time to call you and make sure you're okay.

And God help you if you try to talk to them about the assignors abusing you. Not only will they claim they can't do anything, as assignors are third party contractors, but in many cases, they contact the assignors and tell them who's reported them. You've now officially burned your bridge. The MHSAA will take your money and they will sign you up but they won't support you as an official.

It's sad, because as an official, you dedicate hundreds and thousands of hours of your own time. The money is great at times but the harassment, name-calling, insults and degrading treatment is horrible. People don't care. They will call officials names. They will insult them. They will treat them in an abusive manner. And nobody seems to care.

The officials make between $25 and $150 a day depending on what game they are doing or the level of games they are doing, and if things don't go well? Their partners will be nice and friendly to their face but then they will insult them to anyone anywhere that will listen.

I will say anything to someone's face that I will put on social media or put into writing. I'm not going to apologize for anything I've said. I'm not going to be sorry for anything I might say. Anyone who has officiated or seen an official work knows the guys I'm talking about. They are disgusted about them as I am too. However, they don't have the balls or backbone to actually say something about it. That's where I'm different; I do and I really don't care what anyone thinks.

I see fat guys on the basketball court. I see greedy guys who don't care about the games. I see overweight guys who aren't in shape doing college-level ball games. They should be embarrassed. They are making themselves look stupid. And if anyone was ever to confront me about what I'm saying? You're damn right I'd tell them to their face.

I won't apologize for what I've said. If you are angry or mad about what I've said because you just finished reading it? Maybe you should (a) grow a set of balls and tell other officials who should quit that it's time to be put out to pasture, or (b) stop being that guy and get your fat ass off the field and find another hobby so you stop embarrassing yourself and making other officials look like shit.

I won't say I'm sorry for a damn thing I just wrote. I used to officiate a lot of sports. I was very good at it. But I got disgusted working with guys who couldn't do their job and wouldn't quit because they were making too much money. I got disgusted at the MHSAA for taking my money and not giving a damn about me as an official. I finally had enough, so I walked away from it.

If you don't like it? You can stop reading it. I don't apologize for who I am. And I sure as hell won't apologize for being me. If you don't like it? Find someone else, because that's obviously what you're looking for. And have a nice day doing it.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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