One-eyed ref sues Big Ten over termination
James Filson says he always met and “often exceeded” the expectations of the Big Ten Conference in the eight years he worked as a football official for the collegiate athletic conference.
In the spring of 2000, an accident caused him to lose one eye. He returned to his job that season — without informing his bosses of the accident — and contends that in the five years that he worked with one eye — which included officiating two Bowl games — reviews of his work were, “on average, substantially better than the reviews he received in the eight years preceeding the loss of his eye.”
But when the head football coach at the University of Michigan brought up the issue with the commissioner of the Big Ten, the conference decided to terminate Filson from his job as a referee.
Equal opportunity is all well and good, but hiring a guy with one eye to be a referee is like hiring someone with no arms to be a massage therapist. It’s a pretty crappy position to be in, but hey, if this doesn’t work out maybe he could get work as the guy on the Oakland Raiders logo.
One-Eyed Ref Sues Big Ten Over Termination (CBS 2 Chicago)
