The full embrace of gambling by pro and college football creates new obligations and, if heeded, new expenses. At both levels of the game, it’s more important than ever for the officiating to be improved.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has been carrying that flag in recent weeks. He had some things to say earlier this month. And, despite Clemson being fined $10,000, he had more to say this week.
“That’s why I was so frustrated with the refs, a little salty, because it’s — there’s a lot at stake,” Swinney said. “And there’s not consequences. In this profession, coaches get crucified, fined. Players get crucified, held to this unrealistic accountability standard, but refs have zero accountable. Well, they do, but it’s behind a curtain. They get to go home and drink a beer and get on with their life and just leave the carnage left behind that affects a lot of people. People losing jobs. And that system needs to change, too. That system needs to change.
“There’s a system of accountability, but y’all don’t know anything about it. It’s behind a curtain. How dare we have accountability? In the meantime, we got gambling issues going on, people being suspended, all that kind of stuff, right? Yep. I mean, refs are people, too. It ain’t just coaches and players, and if they’re a part of the game, then, by God, they ought to be be a part of the game. And they ought to be a part of the accountability, and they ought to be a part of the consequences, not just behind some shadowy curtain. Like, no, they ought to have to answer for it.”
Swinney realizes not every call will be easy. He thinks too many easy calls are being missed.
“There’s judgment calls and all that, and I mean, we just have to disagree to disagree,” Swinney said. “But there’s also absolute flat-out misses, with no consequences. . . . We’re allowed to turn in 10 calls, alright? And so we had a game earlier this year that we lost. I had 14 I wanted to turn in, but I can only turn in 10, alright? I thought eight were wrong, but you got back, ‘Yep, missed it.’ Five of the ten were wrong. And I mean, these are game-changing calls. Obvious past interference, not called. That takes you off the field. But, yeah, we just get a, ‘This will be addressed with the crew,’ and yada, yada, yada, OK? Yeah, but there’s no public accountability. . . . So that’s the system. The system needs to change. It needs to be changed. There needs to be challenge opportunity, and we need full-time officials. If you’re going to have this type of stakes, needs to be full time officials. And everybody should have consequences. And the coaches and the players shouldn’t be the only ones that publicly have accountability. That should change, too.”
Change is the key word. If/when Swinney is fined directly, he may just pay in change.
“I think I’m just gonna get some pennies and just mail ‘em in a box, that’s what I’m gonna do,” Swinney said.
Fines or not, Swinney said what more need to be saying. The stewards of pro and college football will keep their heads low, mouths shut, and wallets clasped for as long as they can. They don’t want to spend the money to improve the system. They want everyone to accept that mistakes happen, and that (in theory) it all evens out in the end.
Last year, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones argued that the two teams in any game accept that there may be bad calls. That’s fine, as long as the bad calls only affect those teams. Gambling makes bad calls affects more people than the two teams. And the efforts of pro and college football to profit from gambling create an absolute duty to strive to make things better.
So keep waving the flag, Dabo. Other coaches need to support him by doing the same damn thing. The more they fine coaches for telling the truth, the more people will realize that they’re trying to silence legitimate dissent regarding a system that could eventually cause a disaster.