They say sport's best referees and umpires are the ones you don't notice — Outside The Box says different.
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Much like players and coaches, officials have every right to show their personalities, and are a crucial part of the game — it is about time we start giving them the respect they deserve.
You could argue officiating is about making the correct calls, and yes, that is important.
But so is having a bit of fun and really making yourself a part of the game — those are the officials we are honouring today.
Here's our list of favourite referees who have gone above and beyond in terms of getting themselves noticed.
Mike Dean (football)
The great Mike Dean just can't help but make himself a part of the action.
Whether it's saying "off you pop" when he hands out a red card, stepping over the ball to let it roll through his legs when he easily could have just run out of the way (on multiple occasions), accidentally wheeling away in celebration with a team after it has scored (on multiple occasions) or hiding the match ball from a player who has scored a hat-trick, Dean just lives to get noticed.
Many suspected he was a Manchester United supporter — tapping Adnan Januzaj on the backside to wish him good luck didn't help ease those suspicions — until he was videoed going bonkers in the away end when his beloved Tranmere Rovers won in the play-offs.
Legend of the game.
Steve Bucknor (cricket)
I actually rate Bucknor as an umpire purely because he was terrible at it.
A quick YouTube search will reveal why Indian supporters aren't the biggest fans of this bloke, having basically cost them the 2008 SCG Test with a series of shocking, inexplicable decisions.
The beauty of Bucknor was every so often he'd just give someone out LBW when they'd literally middled it, or spend so long considering an appeal the fielding team had almost given up hope before sending someone off.
Cricket needs more blokes like Bucknor.
Nigel Owens (rugby)
Nigel Owens is fully aware he is mic'd up, and whether it's an act or his natural personality, he spends the full 80 minutes doing a stand-up comedy routine, and some of it actually hits.
He's got no time for nonsense — "what part of ‘wait’ don't you understand?", "how many times have I refereed you and you still don't understand me?" and "I don't think we've met before, I'm the referee here, not you" are among his greatest hits.
No idea if he knows his stuff, but he sure knows humour.
Steve Javie (basketball)
Being shameless is one of our favourite traits; Steve Javie's ability to shamelessly defend every decision made by an NBA referee ever is tremendous.
Javie is employed as ESPN's rules expert — when a play is reviewed via video replay, he is meant to explain the situation and what the correct call is.
What Javie does instead is stall, wait until the referees have actually announced their official call and then say "oh yeah that's what I would have said too, great call''.
If that's how he sits on the fence, he must have been a good referee in his near-1800 NBA matches.
Wes McCauley (ice hockey)
The beauty of referees in the NHL and the NFL is they are mic'd up to announce calls to the crowd after video review.
Wes McCauley — a man you've almost certainly never heard of — has an absolute flair for the dramatics, and leaves a tense pause in the middle of his announcements to build anticipation.
“After reviewing the play, the call on the ice . . . STANDS! We got a goal!”
“After reviewing the play it was determined that the puck . . . completely crossed the line, we have a goal.”
“Number 95 for Montreal, and number 47 for Boston, five minutes each for FIGHTING.”
The man just gets it — he is a part of the event and can build the atmosphere for those in attendance.
Tim Donaghy (basketball)
If this name doesn't mean anything to you, it should.
Donaghy, a NBA referee of nearly 800 games, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for betting on games he was officiating in the 2000s.
There isn't enough space in this multiple time award-winning column to explain the saga in its entirety, but at its core, Donaghy found himself in with the mob, passed on information to them about who referee crews were likely to favour, and even loaded up on his own games for a little bunse (bunsen-burner aka earner).
Billy Bowden (cricket)
I was hesitant to include Bowden in this list as he's a genuine wanker, but he probably pioneered being the cricket umpire that is simply there to get noticed.
He claims arthritis meant he couldn't straighten his index finger, although if you told me he was lying this whole time so as to patent the “crooked finger of doom”, you certainly wouldn't be surprised.
His flamboyant signal for six was just ridiculous, he'd just pretend to fall over for no apparent reason anytime the ball was hit anywhere near him, and when he was signalling drinks he'd essentially mime drinking out of a bucket which I also found weird.
Billy was basically trying to go viral before virality was a thing, and he did a poor job of doing it, yet he makes this list for sheer effort.
Senior journalist