Fewer Distinctions

Art, writing, patterns, music, philosophy, fashion, commerce: A cultural ticker tape by Andrew Lipsky
I don’t know how the league could have expected these replacement refs to do any better. It’s a tremendous insult to the players and the fans to have these yo-yos keeping order and enforcing the rules when their incapacity is not only patently obvious, but so reliable as to likely affect teams’ strategies. How would we feel if all of our judges and magistrates went on strike, were replaced by the actors who played judges on “Law & Order”, and injustice became normative because the replacement judges were weak, ignorant, and ill-equipped to serve in their stead? Clearly the league needs to resolve this labor dispute and staff these games with official referees, not create weeks and weeks of statistics and progress which are dubious at best and deserving asterisks at worst.

I don’t know how the league could have expected these replacement refs to do any better. It’s a tremendous insult to the players and the fans to have these yo-yos keeping order and enforcing the rules when their incapacity is not only patently obvious, but so reliable as to likely affect teams’ strategies. How would we feel if all of our judges and magistrates went on strike, were replaced by the actors who played judges on “Law & Order”, and injustice became normative because the replacement judges were weak, ignorant, and ill-equipped to serve in their stead? Clearly the league needs to resolve this labor dispute and staff these games with official referees, not create weeks and weeks of statistics and progress which are dubious at best and deserving asterisks at worst.