Afterthought – Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano
Recently I had taken part in a onehour program in the National Public Radio studio in New York City. During that show I was asked the “state of officiating” question. I gave the normal, usual and reasonable answer: more public, more intense, more important and more difficult, which pretty much sums up what I said in longer form. But now, on my own, walking through the heat waves wafting up from the asphalt pathway, I offered myself a different answer to that question.
That answer was a single word: afterthought. The word smacked me good. Stride after stride I began to mull over why that word came to the forefront. An “afterthought” is something that occurs later, something that was not thought of originally. Sports officials certainly do feel like they are treated as afterthoughts in many, if not most, occasions and environments. We are a requirement for the product and promise of sports to be fulfilled, yet we are usually made to feel optional, like a sunroof on a car.
Referee Magazine Publisher, Barry Mano’s latest Publisher’s Memo. Found in the September, 2018 issue of Referee magazine.
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