Bob Uecker made a career as a bad baseball player and a funny pitchman for Miller Lite beer. “He missed the tag” is one of the funnier lines in the annals of television commercials. We can take Uecker’s disgust with the umpires to another level by analyzing the rules in professional sports that officials rarely enforce.
The ignored rules run the gamut from obvious physical infractions to nuanced interpretations of rules that the officials do not know much about. One sport does not have a monopoly over blown calls or missed infractions. Each professional sport has a couple of rule infractions that officials ignore for one reason or another.
Soccer-Diving
Perhaps the greatest actors play the world’s most popular sport. All over the field, players fall down and fake injury in an attempt to provoke a referee to pull a red or yellow card on an opposing player. The diving has gotten so bad that you have to wonder if an apparition knocks the players onto the ground.
Soccer referees throughout the world have received word from their respective sanctioning bodies to cut down on the acting and enforce the diving rules that already exist in their rulebooks. Yet, watch any match from anywhere in the world, from Caracas to London. Players grab their shins and groins directly in front of referees and the zebras still swallow their whistles. The World Cup, the shining soccer beacon that comes around every four years, is a clinic on how to draw yellow and red cards without ever sustaining any type of contact.
Major League Baseball-Balk
There is a reason why fans yell “BALK” whenever a pitcher feigns a throw to first, second, or third base. In most cases, the pitcher has committed a balk. Unfortunately, the umpires rarely call it a balk. The balk rule has been on the books since the late 1800s, yet it is probably the least understood rule of them all. As Ron Luciano once famously said, "I never called a balk in my life. I didn't understand the rule."
How many pitchers violate the following balk rule, as posted in the MLB rule book?
Rule 8.05(c) Requires the pitcher, while touching his plate, to step directly toward a base before throwing to that base. If a pitcher turns or spins off of his free foot without actually stepping or if he turns his body and throws before stepping, it is a balk.
Pitchers are notorious for not stepping off the pitching rubber before throwing over to first base. The sleight of hand, or in this case, sleight of feet, has dramatically reduced the number of stolen bases over the past twenty years. Umpires need to reread this rule and start enforcing it.
National Basketball Association-Offensive Player Three Second Violation
Shaquille O’Neal was the worst offender of this rule. He barely made an effort to move in and out of lane within the time mandated by NBA rules. He flaunted the rule so much that he could have established a forwarding address for his mail while he stood in the paint.
Contemporary players, mostly centers, continue to flaunt the rule because NBA officials call the violation as often as Kobe Bryant passes the ball. Players cannot park under the basket to wait for lob passes or errant shots for longer than three seconds. I understand NBA referees must count to ten to ensure a player crosses mid court, and they keep their eyes on the 24-second shot clock. That is much to account for, which may be the reason they cannot count to three and call the three-second violation
National Football League-Offside
Technology has provided football fans with ways to gauge how far a team must go to secure a first down. The long yellow stripe across our television screens denotes the first down line. The long blue strip represents the line of scrimmage. Neither players nor officials can see the long blue stripe, which is seems to be the reason why officials do not call offside whenever players obviously line up past the long blue line.
NFL referees must account for a number of things before and during every play. The easiest thing to account for should be making sure that players line up on their side of the line of scrimmage. During a recent NFL game, I counted 18 instances when a player (mostly wide receivers) lined up offsides. This is also a problem on kickoffs, when members of the kicking team run past the line of scrimmage before the kick.
National Hockey League-High Sticking
The NHL has spent a considerable amount of time and energy trying to reduce the number of concussions that plague the league. However, the hyperfocus has forced NHL referees to miss other rule infractions, the most notable of which is high-sticking. Players have their sticks raised above their shoulders on virtually every play and they bring the high sticks into corner scrums and skirmishes near the goal crease. The referees swallow their whistles.
High sticking can cause debilitating injuries, especially around the eyes. Rule 60.1 states, “A “high stick” is one which is carried above the height of the opponent’s shoulders.” Watch an NHL game, and tell me how many times players violate this rule and get away with it.
Major League Baseball-Wearing Jewelry
“No field personnel may wear distracting jewelry of any kind. Distracting jewelry includes any item worn by a player which, in the opinion of the umpire, could interfere with the play of the game or umpires' ability to make calls, or endanger the health or safety of a player, including the player wearing the jewelry.”
Unless a player wears the amount of bling worn by Mr. T, MLB turns a blind eye away from this rule. Players wear gold chains, religious emblems, and other jewelry that defies this rule. The only time umpires call a player on this rule is when another player claims the sun’s reflection from the jewelry blinds him in the field.
National Football League-Holding
A prominent offensive lineman once said holding occurs on every NFL play. Sometimes, players grab an opponent’s uniform and fling them to the ground with a professional wrestling move. The only time the zebras call holding in the NFL is when a coach or player incessantly yaps about it. Otherwise, holding occurs on every play, thus allowing the leagues protected quarterbacks to remain unscathed.
Part of the problem lies with the average age demographic of NFL referees. Most of these guys have been AARP eligible before Tim Tebow gave us Jesus Christ. Moreover, the NFL still clings to the odd notion that part time referees function well as a unit. The NFL need to hire younger, full time referees to clamp down on holding.
National Basketball Association-Traveling
There is no need to recite the NBA rulebook. All you have to do is watch an NBA game and count the number of steps players take before either dribbling or taking the ball to the hole. Michael Jordan especially flaunted the traveling rule. Now, Bryant and Lebron James need a suitcase on their way to the basket.
Dribbling used to be a skill basketball players needed to hone in order to succeed at the professional level. All they have to do now is make sure the refs are not looking when they four-step their way to the basket.
National Hockey League-Delay of Game
Professional hockey players have super accurate shots that can knock cans off a goal from fifty feet away. Yet, players raise their arms with indignation whenever a referee decides to call a delay of game penalty on them for shooting a puck into the stands. Wild scrambles in front of the net cause some players to resort to cheating, such as shooting pucks into the stands. Other methods of dousing fires around a goal include covering a puck or throwing it away from the crease. The refs just stand around wondering why there is so much commotion.
Golf-Speed of Play
The PGA mandates that players have a certain amount of time to address their balls, set their feet, and contemplate the meaning of life before swinging a club. However, many players believe they should spend the time before hitting a golf ball going over to do lists or devising ways to build larger biceps like Tiger. PGA officials rarely enforce the speed of play rule, particularly on high profile players. The problem is the rule does not appear to have clear meaning. It is hard to enforce a rule when you do not know what the rule means.
Watch for these rule infractions the next time you catch your favorite sport. Let the officials know when they have “missed the tag.”