Referees May Be Going Deaf Because Of Their Whistles, Still No
Word On What’s Causing Their Blindness Say what you will about
that ref who made that hard call in that game that cost you your
house, your car and the use of your legs. They still have one of
the hardest jobs in sports. They have to make tough, objective
calls that could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Meanwhile, they have a crowd of drunken, screaming, foaming fans
calling for their head to be removed from their bodies and
bounced around the stadium like a fleshy beach ball — and that’s
just in Philly. It turns out that being headless may be one of
the smaller things they have to worry about while they work. A
new study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Hygiene (the only trade magazine that makes drinking on the job
seem less fun) found that the whistles that referees use to stop
plays and grab players’ attention could be contributing to their
hearing loss. Apparently, referees suffer from a common malady
that they