Hey moron! Yes, you!

That game the team you hate won? It wasn’t rigged.

Those zebras out there who made the call that you hate? They’re not trying to favor one team over another.

Just stop your whining. It’s tiring, repetitive and has no basis in reality.

Do I have your attention? Good.

You see it every time a sports thing happens. “These (insert league or conference here) refs are terrible! They’re the worst! It’s rigged!” Very easy and very popular to claim it.

Sometimes it’s blowing off steam. Sometimes it’s legitimate stupidity from fans.

Listen. Officiating is hard. There’s a bazillion rules, the action is moving very fast and the ref has to make a judgement call in the blink of an eye.

I could wax poetic about my decade as a soccer ref and the roughly 1,000 games I officiated in (I would ref around 8-10 games every weekend fall and spring). But here’s a better ancedote.

This might be the best piece Sports Illustrated has ever done. When Rick Reilly was really good at his craft and not a television hack. I’m glad it’s still available through the Wayback Machine.

You’re not going to get all the call. It’s impossible in some instances. It’s flawed people trying their best.

Remember the NFL officials lockout? The replacement refs were so bad the players threatened to boycott after the Fail Mary. The refs lockout ended shortly after and the real refs got standing ovations the next weekend.

If you’re a soccer snob, you might point to the David Coote situation in England and claim it’s rigged. Coote might have been biased against Liverpool FC (my team, BTW), but when you get yelled in the face by an angry German, you don’t feel happy thoughts about them. Doesn’t mean it was rigged. And it wasn’t.

Chill out. Get an ice cream cone. Dance to Duran Duran. Watch a YouTube video that makes you happy. Text somebody. Take a shower. Burn down a Hobby Lobby. Just do something constructive.