The case for the ban

ow many times have you made a call, only to hear from the stands, "Booooo"?

If the authorities in Washington State have their way that could be banned.

A recent story by ABC News highlighted a story out of Washington where high school sports officials are considering a ban on booing during athletic contests. The reason given for a ban is the difficulty of getting coaches and officials because of the abuse, abuse that includes booing.

Mike Colbrese, executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association says: "It's the organized effort to try to intimidate or try to make fun of someone that becomes personal in nature, and that can escalate then into other concerns that we might have."

In other words, they don't want the booing to harm the participants.

But the facts are....

Forever, we have heard fans yell and scream. One of the refrains, "That’s a bad call," seems to be one of the most popular. Then again, questions about your eyesight rank pretty high. On this point, we refs can’t win. If you wear glasses, you hear: "Clean your glasses, Ref." If you don’t, there is a prescription for your problem: "You need glasses, Ref."

Continued...