Football officials are always a good excuse for fans to blame when their favorite team loses. Some will say that the spots were wrong or they missed a key pass interference call that cost them the game. Each crew is graded during each game and theoretically if you or your crew does not make the grade they will not do any more games. Who care is someone on the crew has only one eye, right?
James Filson was a Big Ten official for 8 years and he states that he
“often exceeded” the expectations set forth for football officials, but what many did not know was that he did it with only one eye. In 2000 he had an accident where he fell and hit his eye of the corner of a table causing him to lose sight in that eye. He did not miss a beat as he returned to his job in the fall, without letting anyone know. During that time he saw his officiating grades improve when he had one eye rather than two.
Well in the spring of 2005 Lloyd Carr (who has a history of harassing officials) found out about Filson only having vision in one eye and brought it to the attention of the Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney. Delaney, being the slime ball that he is, had Filson fired right away. Filson is suing the Big Ten saying he was wrongfully terminated and it is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Please tell me how this is possible? If the man, Filson, actually improved after the accident how can he be fired? It was not like anyone gave him special treatment on his grading because no one knew about it. He did his job and he did it well. If Lloyd Carr concentrated the energy he uses
to whine about the NCAA allowing a 12th game, and the officiating maybe his team would not underachieve so bad each year. I for one hope that Filson wins his case and this mistreatment becomes a little more public.
