TheComeback- Pac-12 referee Chris Coyte and his crew have been the target of threats and harassment by fans in the wake of a controversial decision to eject Kentucky running back Benny Snell from the Wildcats' 24-23 loss to Northwestern in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl on Dec. 29.
Coyte's decision to eject Snell for making contact with him was widely criticized after video replay showed minimal, inconsequential contact between the two following a play early in the second quarter. In an interview with a pool reporter after the game, Coyte reaffirmed the decision to eject Snell, and the Pac-12 later stood by the call. In the days following the game, Coyte received a barrage of threatening calls to his cell and office phones, sources said, as did the commercial real estate association he belongs to. The harassing calls began to die down until last week, sources said, when a letter from Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart to the Pac-12's vice president of officials, David Coleman, critical of Coyte and his crew was made public by the Lexington Herald-Leader, which reported it obtained the letter through an open records request. ------- I typically hold myself to a standard that is at least slightly higher than placing empty threats on the lives of referees, and if I were to feel strongly enough to consider homicidal harassment, it certainly wouldn't be due to an ejection from a bowl game that is only meaningful in terms of the money it brings in. That's why it feels weird saying that Chris Coyte brought this bloodthirsty backlash upon himself, but - after viewing the play in question - he kinda, sorta did...
We are at a point in which accepting a job officiating college football is liable to get you "constructively" crucified by way of various mediums. That might not be fair or rational, but it is factual. So maybe, just maybe, keep that in mind and be better than making game-altering decisions because your pride was hurt by a player refusing your help. Crappy calls happen, but it they usually happen because football is a violent game played at an incredibly fast speed, not because the authority figure making the crappy calls had his fragile sense of self compromised by someone that just got trucked by about 800 pounds of muscle. You'd have to be an idiot to agree with that off-handed ruling, and that's exactly what the person responsible for it did by doubling down after the game. So, if I had one piece of advice regarding this story then it would definitely be to steer clear of antagonistically contacting the personal numbers of those that wronged the young adult(s) you were rooting for in a game of very little consequence, especially weeks after the fact. However, if I had two pieces of advice regarding this story then the second would be to steer clear of being a self-important, overbearing asshole when whistle-blowing during a college football game that features a team from the South. While the first is undoubtedly the biggest problem with sports fandom, the second has become the biggest problem in sports officiating.
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