NFL Referee’s Tongue-tied Call Leaves Everyone Laughing, His Reaction Was Great Life Lesson (VIDEO)
As humans, none of us are perfect.
I believe there was only one perfect man to walk this earth, and while many of us strive to be like him, our imperfections only allow us to go so far in that quest.
Any career that includes speaking for a living - making announcements, delivering newscasts, etc. - opens that person up to criticism. Thousands of well-spoken thoughts can be delivered but that one mess up is what gets everyone's attention - ridicule and all.
Referees are in the communication business. Think about how daunting it must be to have to announce a penalty on a team whose fans in the stands are going to boo you mercilessly. You may even have one of the greatest players of all time curse you out for a call you make!
Referees are hated by many but are such a necessary part of what makes a sport so entertaining and keeps it from descending into chaos.
On Sunday, veteran NFL referee Clete Blakeman - the man who was cursed out by Tom Brady in the video above but who was also a referee during Super Bowl 50 - made a big blunder while trying to call a penalty against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"Delay of game, defense No. 55, for making a move that’s not necessary… un-like football. It’s a half distance from penalty. …"
As you can see, Blakeman realized his mistake and laughed his way through it.
Sometimes as humans, we take ourselves too seriously. Yes, we should strive to be great and we should hold ourselves accountable to being the best we can be, but we have to remember that we are not perfect. We will make mistakes and it's important that when we do that we also strive to give ourselves some mercy from time to time. We can either allow our mistakes to plague us or we can learn from those life lessons.
And, sometimes, we just have to be able to laugh at ourselves.