Arguably the most influential people in any sports game are not the fans, coaches, or even players. The people who dictate the game and can ultimately decide the outcome of the game are the referees. Whether you love them or hate them depends on the game, and if your favorite team is winning. But now the conversation begins, do we even need referees anymore, or can we depend on technology? Let’s decide if it is time for referees to step aside for technology.

Referees on the professional level of any sport have one of the toughest jobs in the world. Not only do they have to deal with the egos of the best players and coaches in the world, they have to worry about the fans of the losing team who are angry because their teams lost. They have to deal with an extremely fast-paced game where sometimes it is just impossible to make the right call on the field in an instant, knowing that if they make the wrong call they would have an entire fanbase at their throats. But referees know exactly what they are getting into as soon as they put on their iconic striped white and black shirt.

The professional sports we all know and love are already beginning to shy away from the inconsistent referees and moving on to more accurate, yet slower action replay and or cameras. We are already seeing the effects that the implementation of technology in sports is having. It is slowing down the games and killing all the momentum that one team had. The true purpose of action replays was to correct obvious errors in sports, but now it seems as if they are being used in every other play. The overuse of action replays in all sports has led to questioning of other fundamentals in sports like what is a catch, was it a goal, and ultimately deciding who wins the games.

However, the introduction hasn’t all been bad; it has led the game to be played smarter because of all the footage teams have of their opponents. But even all this information about the opponent hasn’t caused the game to become any less unpredictable, which is why we all love sports. Some people say technology has ruined the game which we all know and love because officials are now pursuing a “perfect game.” This “perfect game” that officials are chasing is impossible due to all the talent of athletes and the randomness of sporting events, which is what makes them great.