Why are basketball officials so much more touchy than football officials?

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Is there an answer beyond “That’s just the way it is?”

Football coaches yell and curse at football officials routinely without flags being thrown. Yet when a basketball coach or player vehemently questions a call, even without cursing, an official will often call a technical foul.

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2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Likely it is also related to the level of contact allowed between the players. In basketball a small tap against the hand of a player quickly results in a foul, while in some other sports you can basically tackle each other.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Part of it is the courtside experience is a core part of basketball both for the image but also for a very important set of clientele. Also, since Allen Iverson, the NBA has worked very hard to sanitize their image and shy away from “street ball.”

The refs can take it, but it’s very much against the rules.

That’s commenting more on the attitude and cursing than questioning calls. The latter is probably due to delay of game being a very real threat in Basketball where in football most of the game time the ball is not in play.