Officials and referees are a crucial component of athletics. Without them, there are no sports. Over the last handful of years, there has been a rise in assaults against sports officials from unruly parents, coaches and fans. Nebraska State Senator Bob Andersen is trying to deter individuals from committing these types of assaults with LB657, also known as the Ref’s Act. “LB657 does three things. First it creates the offense of assault on a sports official, LB657 will make it a class 3A felony to intentionally or knowingly cause bodily injury to a registered referee, umpire, or similar official, before, during or immediately following a contest. Second, it ensures that sports officials receive similar legal protections as other public service officials. Third, it reinforces Nebraska's commitment to fostering a safe and respectful environment for athletic competition,” Andersen said. Scott Earl is a criminal division lead for Sarpy County and has even reffed at the youth sports level. He agrees that the berating of officials has gotten out of hand. “I've had experiences of parents and coaches confronting me. Including one following me to my car once before. Thankfully, I was never actually physically assaulted, but we do have a real issue in which we’ve just lost our sense of decorum. The behavior of fans where they start to dehumanize officials has just gotten to a point where its been quite unreasonable,” Earl said. Not everyone is in favor of passing the ref’s act though. Spike Eickholt is a member of the Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association and he argues that this bill is unnecessary. “It's already a crime to assault another person. It's third degree assault. The penalty for third degree assault is zero to one year imprisonment, zero to one-thousand dollar fine. It’s not a slap on the wrist, it’s not de minimis, it’s a serious misdemeanor. It's the highest level of misdemeanor crime. Some of the proponents are making arguments that essentially just want to have people prosecuted under current laws and you can commit a third degree assault simply by threatening somebody in a menacing manner without actually making physical contact with them. So there’s already a penalty now for that. so I'd argue that this law is unnecessary,” Eickholt said.That will ultimately be up to the judiciary committee to decide as they will vote to see if the bill will move forward. 

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