(This post originally appeared on The Washington Post)
Last Sunday, Kentucky fell to North Carolina in the NCAA basketball tournament 75-73. It was a heartbreaker for Kentucky fans and many of them, including the team’s coach John Calipari, were less than pleased with the game’s officiating, which stuck his players with many fouls he considered undeserved. “You know, it’s amazing that we were in that game where they practically fouled out my whole team,” Calipari said in this Sporting News article. “Amazing that we had a chance.”
The team’s fans, however, took out their frustrations in other ways. Some went on a rampage in the streets, burning televisions and couches. Others decided to take out their frustrations on one of the referees. Or, more exactly, on the referee’s small business.
According to this report on CBS Sports, a few angry Kentucky supporters discovered that one of the refs, John Higgins, owns a roofing business in Nebraska called Rooferees. Over the next few days hundreds of “vulgar comments and poor reviews” were left on his Facebook page.
“You are a crooked ref and if your work as a contractor is anything like your work as a ref I wouldn’t trust you to put a plastic roof on my niece’s doll house,” one angry fan wrote. “If his integrity refereeing is anything like his integrity of his roofing then expect a flood,” another chimed in.
Higgins has since taken down his Facebook page, but has kept his company’s website live, I guess hoping to weather out the storm. But c’mon people – it’s just a game, isn’t it? Whether you agree or not with the calls he made you’re going attack how a man makes his livelihood? Let it go – and root against UNC next time.
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