Referees may face ban for pink charity whistles

Just wait until the girls' volleyball and basketball officials get a load of this.

Can you say "mass walkout?"

 

Does that look like a major rules violation?

 

If these guys get suspended, then every other ref in the state should decline to work the games and leave the state association with two choices: reinstate everyone or don't play the games.

 

If the uniform code calls for black whistles why didn't the refs in violation call the state governing body and try to get prior approval? If the governing body didn't approve, make a big deal about it then. Even if it's a good cause - and my grandmother died from breast cancer so I am all for the cause - doesn't preclude you from following the rules.

Someone was on these boards bitching about premature running clocks, where are they in this argument?

 

Bingo.

It was for a good cause, plain and simple. It wasn't political. It wasn't for profit. Nothing like that - just awareness of a terrible, terrible disease.

It's been said on this board many times that cancer sucks. A small gesture like pink whistles? Go for it.

 

My opinion was asked for ...

I'm in between. The color of the whistles should matter little. I haven't looked, but I don't think they're addressed in the rules.

But if your state says black whistles and you decide to go ahead with pink without approval, then you must be ready to face the consequences. The whole thing may end up being blown out of proportion but they shouldn't be exempt just because it's for a "good cause." That line of reasoning is foolishness. It's promotion of something outside the game, a gesture to bring attention to something other than the game and if it wasn't approved then punish them.

Two games? Maybe too harsh. But all of you indignant over it? Too much.

 

In the history of high school administrators power trips, this ranks right up there. That's saying something when that includes Jr. High principals and high school football coaches.

At least it's not the HHSA of the state doing it, or the glaring hypocrisy of them being bed with corporate sponsors these days would be laughable. I can't go to a high school tournament game without being told drink chocolate milk, buy Farmer's Insurance and shop at American Eagle.

But god fucking forbid somebody has a pink whistle for charity.

 

May I ask why it's foolish? The reasoning escapes me why we can't ignore tiny glaring bits of bullshit halfheartedly written into the bylaws of a sport that in the grand scheme of things matters not even a little bit?

Are we going by the Jr. High principal's logic that "without rules! there is CHAOS!!"

Aren't we adults? Can't we see the difference between pink whistles and players taking cash or spearing a guy with a helmet?

Or is nuance beyond even adults now?

This isn't like golf, where the tiniest of infractions DO matter. This isn't like Constitutional law, where bending something sets dangerous precedents. THIS IS A WHISTLE.

 

From another board, this is reportedly a quote from the head of the officials' association:

"The media coverage was orchestrated by a member of the PNFOA. There is little truth to the story. The sound bites they used support their issue. This is not about pink whistles. I stated to them before this event happened that "the officials would not be penalized for using pink whistles". The issue WOA has with PNFOA is that this is not the first time they have ignored a rule, regulation, or interpretation and done what they wanted to do. Since Thursday's story, I have had four associations discussing that they will not adhere to four other rules, regulations, or interpretations because if PNFOA can do it why can't we? I think the four other groups have a solid argument. There is a process in place that PNFOA could have requested a change in the interpretation. They made a decision to not go through the process and "accept the penalty for not doing so". Rather than accepting the penalty for not following process (as they stated to me), one of their officials took the issue to his day job and made the issue about the WOA against pink whistles. If we were against pink whistles, why would four other sports be able to use pink whistles?

"The WOA has a track record of supporting awareness programs: Blue Flag Tribute for Prostate Cancer Awareness - football officials use blue flags the third week of the season. Our basketball, volleyball, wrestling and soccer officials use pink whistles for Breast Cancer Awareness (our volleyball officials even wear pink polo shirts). As well as the other community based programs where officials donate a game check to a local cause. We encourage officials to look for these opportunities, all that we ask is that they do it in a professional and responsible way.

 

It's foolish along the lines of "You're intolerant!" if I don't agree with a point of view.

It's a cop out.

Nothing more.

And you knew, like with Matt's post above, there had to be more to the story than the pink whistles.

In fact, we were going to use our pink whistles Friday but one person didn't have them. So we couldn't because we have to match.

There are regulations concerning this sort of thing for a reason.

 

Can you even tell the difference between a pink whistle and, say, a white whistle from the stands of a HS football game?

And, more importantly, would the referees using pink whistles increase the awareness of breast cancer for anyone at all? I mean, if you don't know about breast cancer by now, it's time to come out from under the rock. If you want to use them to somehow raise money, then fine. But just to "raise awareness"? What does that even mean any more?