This commercial debuted a while ago, and it irks me every time I see it. I like the fact that someone is trying to promote sportsmanship, because clearly some people don’t know what’s appropriate and what’s not, but this ad is just preposterous.
The ref’s job is to make the call. Sometimes he gets them right and sometimes he gets them wrong. Over the course of the game, his missed calls are likely to even out, assuming he’s trying to call a fair game. Alex doesn’t know if the other player hit the ball after he hit it, and shouldn’t assume that he knows better than the ref. Even if he does try to do the “right thing,” it’s doubtful that the ref is going to change his call after a timeout based on what the player says.
The bottom line is that NO ONE expects Alex to fess up and admit that he hit the ball out on that play, so we’ve crossed the line from sportsmanship to stupidity.
Come on, Alex!
