Is ESPN Kidding With this Women Referees Crap?

ESPN - Women continue to struggle to break in as officials at the highest levels of sports. espnW examines the sports showing progress and those lagging far behind.
When Billie Jean King watches a tennis match and sees a blown call, she hopes the linesperson at fault is not a woman. Although she has led the gender-equity charge in tennis since defeating Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes, she hears people speak openly about female officials.
"They don't trust the women; they just don't," King said.
Tennis has been the most progressive of sports when it comes to having women make the call in officiating. Women such as Eileen Leonard, Anita Shukow, Florence Blanchard and Judy Popkin have been officiating men's matches as far back as the 1960s.
But tennis is the exception to the rule when it comes to women and major sports officiating. Even though female participation in all levels of amateur and professional sports has continued to grow in the 39 years since the passage of Title IX, it is rare to have women as professional officials.

Calling the Shots

Women continue to struggle to break in as officials at the highest levels of sports. espnW examines the sports showing progress and those lagging far behind. Story
Our series continues throughout the week with an in-depth look at five sports. Here's the lineup:

Richard Kaufman, the USTA's director of officials, said tennis has had female officials since the 1800s. At the 2010 U.S. Open, 33 percent of the chair umpires in the men's main draw were women.
"Look at basketball, they have one, football none, baseball none, hockey has none -- we've been promoting female officials," Kaufman said.
The numbers are indeed slim. No women call NFL, Major League Baseball or NHL games. The NBA has one female official, Violet Palmer. The elite levels of professional and Olympic soccer are opening their doors to women, with the majority of the opportunities coming in the women's game.
The characteristics of an excellent official as described by those at the top of each sport include knowledge of the rules, a thick skin, impartiality -- qualities that cannot be claimed solely by either gender. From tennis to football to baseball, leagues say they want the best person for the job, yet that person is nearly always male.

So this garbage was on the front page of ESPN.com today for some reason that I can't explain. This is what sucks about ESPN, first they try to force feed UCONN basketball to us, then it turns into the WNBA, women's softball, and non-stop coverage of the women's world cup. Next thing you know, they're shoving it down our throats that women should be officials. Weak effort ESPN, weak effort.

First of all, it's pretty damn simple why women are not refs in men's professional sports: Men don't want to fucking listen to a couple of broads who almost certainly know nothing about sports call a penalty on them. Athletes already can't stand refs, can you imagine if some broad started blowing the whistle on them? Complete anarchy. These athletes have to listen to their wives bitch about shit all day, then when they're on the road their groupies bitch about more shit, then they go to the game and there would be another broad complaining about something or other. Give the men a fucking break for once. And just wait until it's Rosie Referee's time of the month. Fuck me, there'll be so many fouls/penalties that week that the players will make the Malice at the Palace look like a fucking picnic.

P.S. We had a woman referee in a high school football game one time. Before the game one of our coaches came up and said be careful around her, I heard she likes to throw her rag. Point number 1 on why women shouldn't be refs, coaches and players will have zero respect for them. Shit will turn into complete anarchy out there.