Everyone needs to chill out and stop accusing refs of conspiracies

Ted Berg writes the Morning Win newsletter for For The Win. Yell at him on Twitter at @OGTedBerg or via email at AskTedBerg@gmail.com. 

Our man Chris Korman posted a take so spot-on that I'm tempted to just copy and paste the entire thing here, say it's the newsletter, and call it a day. He even included a bunch of links. His completely accurate premise is right there in the headline: " Virginia's controversial NCAA run is proof we're in an almost impossible era for officials."

Anyone who knew me from the time I played or coached in organized sports would be absolutely shocked to hear me defending officials now. One time I punched a ref over a holding call in intramural football in college. (He shoved me first, to be fair.) I spent many years of my life convinced anyone with any desire to become a sports official must be mad for power.

And I don't think it's that I've matured so much as that the whole darn world has changed around me. We have more cameras now, and their images are sharper than ever before, and every single on-field or on-court or on-rink event can be slowed down to roughly the pace of continental drift without sacrificing image quality. And, worse yet, we have Twitter now, and anyone with a live game feed and a conspiracy theory can isolate and share video that turns straightforward moments "controversial."

We are mad at basketball referees for making foul calls and for not making foul calls, or for standing in the wrong place. We are made at baseball umpires for decisions that only look questionable after replay review, and ones that still look impossible to call after replay review. We are mad at NFL refs for practically everything. UFC guys are stopping fights too early, or not early enough.

People were upset with the officiating in Wrestlemania, and Wrestlemania - SPOILER ALERT - is a scripted event.

It's completely ridiculous. Here's (some of) Korman's point:

"It is a very, very bad time to be an official. The job is more difficult than ever before…. Our ability to easily scrutinize plays in slow motion, from multiple angles, gives us unrealistic notions about getting difficult calls right in the moment."

Here's what I'll add: Bad calls and missed calls happen to basically every single team in every single game at every single level in every single sport. Moments we would have just shrugged off as recently as, say, 15 years ago are now dissected in exhaustive detail, but the things we're eager to deem "controversial" should almost never really be that. Do you really, seriously think the NCAA Tournament officials wanted Virginia to win? C'mon. And do you not realize that if Virginia had lost, we'd be digging through all the calls that went against them and suggesting the refs were in the bag for Texas Tech?

Are there bad refs and bad calls? Heck yes. Are there Triple-A umpires desperate for a big-league call who'd never, ever do something like this? Of course there are. The guy who punched an intramural flag football ref in 2001 isn't about to blindly appeal to authority here.

But isolating and amplifying whatever bad or missed calls happen to catch the attention of Twitter and hailing them as evidence of some broad conspiracy make the whole internet look like a million idiotic boys crying wolf. It's bad luck, is all.

Ideally - as Korman suggests - we'll someday get the technology necessary to get more calls correct without gumming up games too much. But until then, you just kind of have to understand that the bad calls even out over time.

No one will ever heed this advice, but I'm issuing it anyway: Just chill out and enjoy the ride. Sports need to have officials presiding over them, and those officials are always going to be human. They're going to screw up sometimes. It happens. Move forward.

Tuesday's big winners: Retiring superstars

The Miami Heat still have some small hope of a playoff berth, but Dwyane Wade played in what could be the final home game of his career on Tuesday. The Heat had his son, Zaire, introduce him and played a tribute video from Barack Obama. In Dallas, Dirk Nowitzki made official what many had long suspected: He too will retire after the season, meaning his 30-point effort for the Mavs on Tuesday came in the last home game of his career. Obviously Wade and Nowitzki took different approaches to announcing their exits. Neither is wrong, but only one gives Barack Obama enough time to record a tribute video.

Quick hits: $1 million, XFL, fraternal feuds

- A woman is suing the Astros for $1 million over an injury she allegedly suffered from a point-blank shot with a T-shirt cannon at Minute Maid Park. The woman claims that Astros mascot Orbit fractured her finger with a weaponized T-shirt, and that she still doesn't have full range of motion. I'm no lawyer and I don't mean to dismiss this woman's real pain and suffering but… one million dollars for a broken finger? If a finger's worth a million dollars, I will send the Houston Astros my pinky in the mail tomorrow.

- The XFL's rulebook is weird and good. I especially like the multi-tiered extra point(s) option. I've long held that the entire basketball court should be converted into a points gradient, so layups only count for one point but half-court jumpers are worth, I dunno, six points, and shots from the opposite foul line count for around 12. Dunks are still worth two, though. We don't want to discourage dunking.

- We've got a brother-on-brother NASCAR feud, sort of. Understanding NASCAR fights makes me appreciate the sport so much more. Michelle Martinelli is dope at this.

- My colleague Hemal Jhaveri weighed in on the NHL's full-season suspension for former Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, who was arrested in 2014 for domestic violence. It's worth your time.

Weird sport Wednesday: Xtreme Baseball

Xtreme Baseball - sometimes known as Extreme Baseball or Double Diamond Baseball - is a patented reworking of traditional baseball that existed in Florida for a few years starting in 2007. There are two home plates right next to each other and two pitchers mounds, and both defenses are in the field at the same time. Both teams loading the bases would mean 29 guys on the field. It's maybe a little too extreme.