Simply Put, Boyfriend/Refs in Tournaments are Bad for Derby

For those of you that haven’t been paying attention to the bottom half of the comment thread on the “Rocky Mountain Rollergirls Take It All” article on DNN, the Cliff’s Notes version is that referee Tootie Tinwhistle and Rocky Mountain Rollergirl Amanda Jamitinya are in a relationship. No big deal. However, Tootie was a ref in the championship game between Rocky Mountain and Oly. Now, it’s an issue. Despite the size this has become, I have not seen anyone call into question the results of the game or accused anyone of cheating. This is simply a matter of people addressing a problem and trying to get it changed. But, somehow, there is pushback from those saying it’s not a problem, which is evidenced in this week’s Derby Deeds podcast. If you aren’t listening to Derby Deeds then you are pretty much a failure as a derby fan (I kid, but seriously). In it, Megatron and Hurt Reynolds (two people whose opinions I respect but are completely and totally wrong about this issue) argued on the side that there are no problems with the current way that referee crews are being handled.

I don’t even need to address the relationship issue, the fact that refs are calling games for their home leagues or leagues they ref for on a somewhat regular basis in the playoffs represents a clear conflict of interest. That does not necessarily mean biased calls are made. It means that the refs are too familiar with the players on the track to have the ability to call a perfectly even game. Lemmy Hearya put it perfectly on DNN:

How many decisions must a ref make in the course of a bout? Hundreds, easily. From the first whistle to the last, a ref is constantly evaluating where various actions and situations fall---was something incidental, or intentional? Insignificant, or meriting a penalty? Major penalty, or minor penalty? A number of those determinations are going to be borderline situations, and must be decided quickly. With the best will in the world, I don't see how any human being could not, subconsciously at least, give some benefit of the doubt in a borderline situation to someone he knows and respects (much less loves, if it comes to that). And, how many things must a ref keep track of during a jam? More than anybody really can. When deciding who and what to watch (again, possibly subconsciously), it's only to be expected that somebody would focus more on the people out there they don't know and trust.

That’s just the issue of wanting the most fair game possible. The other aspect is the perception of the sport as a whole. Why are there no longer fake fights and players getting spanked at halftime after a spin on the penalty wheel? It’s not because there weren’t enough fans who cared enough to complain. It’s not because those fans didn’t like it. It’s because it called into question the seriousness and legitimacy of the sport. This ref issue does the exact same thing except on a much bigger scale: the championship game of the sport, not a random home game with 800 in attendance. Even if a ref can be perfectly unbiased, it looks bad, just as a row of dudes lined up to spank a skater looks bad.

During this week’s Derby Deeds episode, it was brought up that people are surprised about the existence of relationships between refs and skaters. I don’t think anyone has said anything even close to this. Nobody is trying to say that this is a problem through all of derby that needs to be addressed even down to the intraleague level. Everyone seems to be pretty realistic that, yes, this is still a DIY sport, yes, no one is getting paid. Everyone gets that. However, on the playoffs level, on the championship level, on the championship game level, the DIY all-volunteer aspect of the sport is not an issue whatsoever. There are at least two to three full crews of refs at each region and championship. That is more than enough people to successfully ref, at the very least, the two games on the Sunday of championships without conflicts of interest.

The surprise people are showing comes from this happening in the most important game of the year. Those dismissing this issue aren’t taking the scale and resources of the WFTDA championship into account. Nobody is saying that boyfriends shouldn’t be calling intraleague games. That’s a question of resources. There aren’t enough refs to call most of those games otherwise. But, we’re talking about the championship and playoffs. That is a completely different level of the sport. It’s even a completely different level than a regular season WFTDA sanctioned game. Since it’s on a different level, trying to use the DIY all-volunteer canned response to any criticism of the WFTDA is no longer valid. There were thousands of people there paying good money to be a part of it. They didn’t contribute to a charity for a write off on their taxes. They paid money to watch a legitimate sport's championship being played just as they would if they went to a college basketball or pro football game. They don’t care if no one is getting paid, the money out of their pocket is just the same. I know that many don’t like the comparison to pro sports but it’s a fact of life. You don’t need to change everything to “fit in”. You don’t need to use real names. You don’t need to have more consistent less-revealing uniforms. Those aren’t an issue with the sport. This is an issue of the sport.

And, since it’s an issue of the sport, I think we can all agree that we want the most fair game possible. The argument was made that boyfriend refs are many times more harsh on their girlfriend’s team. This is not an argument for continuing to use boyfriends in these games, it’s an argument against it. If the consensus is that boyfriends are taking it extra hard on their girlfriend and their girlfriend’s team, how is that a fair evenly called game? How is that fair for the girlfriend and her team? On the same hand, if refs are more familiar with skaters and more familiar with the penalties that skaters are prone to, then how is that fair and evenly called? The refs chosen for playoff games should be as neutral as possible. Again, we know that people have friends in leagues all over the country. Nobody is saying that refs need to live in a closed-off bubble but an attempt should be made to make the game fair.

It’s being said that ref crews need to work with each other for an entire weekend in order to gain trust and camaraderie with one another, otherwise, games won’t be reffed as well. You can’t argue on one hand that refs are mindless robots that would never let their relationship with skaters even subconsciously affect the game they’re calling while at the same time arguing that a team of refs need to be together for an entire weekend to be able to handle a game well. Either they’re mindless robots that don’t let any outside influences affect their calls or they’re human. If we’re arguing that refs need to know each other and be comfortable with each other then why aren’t these crews reffing with each other for the entire season? They aren’t comfortable with each other the first game, or even second game, of each playoff weekend. Nobody has made the case that the quarterfinal reffing was even slightly worse than the reffing in the finals. If that’s the case, then this idea that crews need to stick together is completely without merit.

Of course, we all want the best crews calling the biggest games and having familiarity with other refs on their crew is helpful but it isn’t the only variable at play. Having associations with a team in the game automatically makes that ref and that crew not the best for that particular game. That means that WFTDA should either use a different crew or substitute in a different ref. This is not a difficult issue to solve.

As roller derby continues to gain popularity, more and more issues will surface that may have been acceptable in the past that are no longer acceptable with the current level of fan support. Simply dismissing any of these new issues that come up as just a conversation among superfans is something that will stunt further growth of the sport. Calling these issues “derby drama” is only a way of writing off the seriousness of the issue. Obviously, not every little thing that comes up is going to need to change or even can be changed, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a legitimate concern. Every sports fan I’ve talked to about this has made the exact same arguments I’ve made here and some have gone even further saying that the results of the game should be called into question. Sports fans should not be ignored, they are the future fans of roller derby. They will not accept anything less than at least the level of fairness that they can get at a high school football game.

The reason that people are wrong about this is because every argument that has been made thus far has been an argument for why it was done in the past. This isn’t an argument about the past, it’s an argument about the future. There is absolutely nothing to gain from continuing this practice. Nothing. We can only expect negative results or, at best, the same. There are enough refs to cover every playoff game without a conflict. This should be a bigger priority than keeping a ref crew together. With what we know now, why would anyone want to continue this practice? We know that fans will freak out and have a big problem with this every time they find out about it. If we keep adding more and more fans every year, it's going to become a bigger and bigger issue every year and what if a ref actually does cheat and is caught? How about we just stop it now before it becomes a large enough issue to become a major embarrassment for the sport.