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Here's a discussion starter: Should players (and I guess coaches) be held to the same standards as officials?
Because when a ref blows a call, everybody jumps on him, as if he's expected to be 100% right all the time. And some folks will go so far as to blame a bad call (or 2 or 3) as the reason why their team lost a game.
However, if you're going to scrutinize every call a ref makes, then you must also scrutinize every play from every player on your team. You undoubtedly will find far more mistakes being made there. And you could argue, at least metaphysically, that each mistake by a player cost his team a win. Because if each player were doing his job, then theoretically each play should succeed. And clearly, players make far, far more mistakes during a game than refs do.
Now, I guess you can argue it's apples and oranges, since your team's players are being opposed by the other team's, forcing them into making mistakes, when the refs don't face the same situation. Their errors are "unforced."
Still, I sometimes wonder what the acceptable error rate is for players. Did Elam and Plummer and Nalen and whatnot make their acceptable rate of mistakes, therefore the onus is on the refs? Or is it fair to say that ANY mistake made by the players contributed just as much to the loss as the refs did?
I think the vast majority of us would agree that it's always the players' fault for losing games (or to be more general, refs almost never cost you a game). I'm just curious about breaking it down for argument's sake, especially for anyone who genuinely believes the refs are responsible for a loss.
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