REPUBLISHED FROM REFEREE.COM

Understand when behavior crosses the line in sports.

Basketball official Marques Pettigrew speaks with Valparaiso men’s coach Roger Powell Jr. during a conference tournament game.

Sports officials encounter differing degrees of behavior while on the job. A zero-tolerance policy is unrealistic, but there are limits to what we should tolerate during a contest — and those limits aren’t the same for everyone. For example, a comment shouted from the 10th row of the bleachers is evaluated differently than one coming from a team captain. Something said by a professional athlete is typically treated differently than a coach in a youth tournament.

Though every official has boundaries of acceptance, this “limit of tolerance” identifies different segments of the sports contest equation and how we should evaluate their behavior, generally. Unsporting behavior by anyone on the basis of race, religion, gender or national origin must be addressed. Otherwise, the following groups are listed in descending order, starting with whom officials should be most tolerant.

Fans

Be more tolerant of fans than any other group. From top to bottom, fans are usually the least educated in the rules, mechanics and philosophies of officiating and, therefore, more likely to verbalize frustration with a judgment or outcome. In the collective mind of the crowd, they have paid their money for the right to boo the officials. Develop thick skin for commentary hurled from the stands. Work to ignore the noise unless it becomes threatening or racist, or the environment starts to become unsafe for you or the participants.

Never respond to fans. Doing so only encourages their interest in harassing officials. At higher levels of play or in venues with larger crowd sizes, increase your tolerance from fans compared to lower levels. Profanity hurled from the stands at a professional football game, for example, is treated differently than the same behavior at a youth soccer match.

If behavior rises to the level that someone needs to be removed from the premises, stop the contest and involve game management or site administrators. Don’t think you can take matters into your own hands; it only creates a potentially dangerous situation for yourself and your partners. If the behavior is not extreme, consider a warning from administrators to fans before elevating to ejection.

At professional and major college levels of play, many instances over the years have presented situations where fans throw small objects onto the playing surface. If a wayward object makes its way onto the playing floor, have game management issue a warning to the crowd. If an object is directed at an opponent or official, remove the offender immediately. If the offender cannot be identified, or if the behavior triggers a chain reaction of throwing objects, consider having management remove all fans from the area where the behavior was observed. Delay the resumption of the contest until the situation is handled to your satisfaction and the participants can resume without issue. Record all necessary information for postgame reports without worrying about delaying the game. Pay special attention to the time of the game, parties involved and direct quotes of harassing language or abusive actions.

Head Coaches

By quantity, this is usually the smallest group involved in any sporting event. Head coaches are often under intense pressure to have their teams perform and are, therefore, naturally going to create conflict for officials. Most often, conflict arises from a biased viewpoint and is usually explained with, “I’m just fighting for my team.” Use preventive officiating whenever possible and tolerate a bit more from head coaches than you would from other participants. Work with them to improve behavior unless it becomes a distraction or is personal in nature. At that point, they leave you with no choice but to penalize.