Contrary to popular belief, referees and umpires are not visually challenged. In fact most have 20/20 vision or better, and those that don’t wear corrective glasses or contacts to aid their vision. At least I think they do—with the glut of bad calls recently, who really knows?
Still, that doesn’t stop fans from questioning the official’s eyesight when calls don’t go their team’s way. Case in point—this past weekend’s Auburn-Arkansas game, which Auburn won 65-43. A couple of highly questionable calls has more than a few Razorback fans steaming. One such call took place in the second quarter, when Tigers RB Mario Fannin appeared to fumble before crossing the goal line during a touchdown run. Arkansas recovered the loose ball, but the refs overturned the fumble ruling on the field, and the touchdown stood.
This call, and another suspect ruling, not only drew the ire of the Arkansas faithful, but the school itself, because they petitioned the SEC to look into the pair of questionable calls.
Now comes the good part.
McDonald Eye Associates, a Fayetteville-based company, is so concerned with the seemingly poor eyesight of the officials from the Auburn-Arkansas game, that they’re offering free laser vision surgery to any of the referees or replay booth officials.
From the press release…
“The officiating of the game has come under much scrutiny among Arkansas fans because of two controversial calls that went against the Razorbacks,” the McDonald release said. “Both plays directly led to Auburn touchdowns.
“Errors and incorrect calls from the game could have possibly been avoided with better vision. McDonald Eye Associates believes that a laser vision correction procedure will result in fewer mistakes in the future.”
Alright, so maybe it’s not so much rip-roaring funny as it is a healthy serving of sour grapes, but what do you expect from a bunch of optometrists. It’s not like eye care professionals are Yakov Smirnoff or anything like that. Funny would be a group of Arkansas proctologists offering the officials free prostate exams, so they could do to the refs what the refs did to the Razorbacks.
/if there’s ever been a bad proctology joke, I’ve yet to hear it
//proctology humor always trumps optometry humor
[H/T to The Slophouse, Image]
