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As a sports fan, I don't want to have to think about umpires or referees. Sure, they are an important component of most professional sporting events, but they should remain in the background. More often than not, if fans start noticing the officials, it's because something controversial has happened. Just take a look at the most recent NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. The referees became the biggest story down the stretch, and that should never be the case.

There have been many other games where questionable calls by the refs end up overshadowing the actual gameplay of the athletes and teams. For example, everyone remembers the NFL playoff game from several years ago when the New England Patriots came back from a 4th quarter deficit to defeat the Oakland Raiders. That game featured the infamous "tuck rule" call by the officials that negated a Tom Brady fumble and gave the Patriots new life. The Patriots went on to win the first of three Super Bowls in the last five years. More recently, Super Bowl XL featured a couple of close calls as well.

And in baseball, who can forget the strikeout that wasn't, when the home plate umpire ruled Anaheim Angels catcher Josh Paul dropped the would-be third-strike, allowing A.J. Pierzynski and the rest of the Chicago White Sox to rally for the win in the American League Championship Series. The White Sox, of course went on to the World Series where they swept the Houston Astros in four games.

I know that it's not fair to bring up only questionable examples of officiating without pointing out all the times that the refs and umpires get difficult calls right. But the point of this article is to remind fans that even game officials have different skill levels. Now, most people who defend referees and umpires are quick to say that these officials are making judgment calls, so they're sure to be wrong once in a great while. However, there's more to officiating than just making the calls, and that's why skill levels of officials can vary as much as the skill levels of the athletes they're monitoring.

Knowing the rules of the game is only one part of being a good referee or umpire. In addition, officials have to have quick reaction times, they have to be decisive, they have to be able to anticipate where the play is going without committing themselves so much that they miss the call if things work out differently than expected, and they have to be able to move themselves into the best position to view the action and make the calls. Many of these skills are developed over the course of years and years of game time experience and offseason preparation.

But just like professional athletes, experience alone is not always enough to improve an official's skill level. Just as professional sports leagues are full of 10-year veterans who still haven't cracked their team's starting lineup, there are no doubt officials out there who probably should be relegated to a backup role.

I'm sure that being an official is a thankless job for the most part. These men and women are inevitably caught in the middle of every controversial situation. They get booed by the home fans and the visiting fans alike, and they hardly ever get credit for making the right calls. After all, most fans think, it's their job to make the right calls, isn't it?

Although I do have sympathy for the no-win situations that officials are usually in, I think that all the major sports leagues have to step up and do something to ensure that the quality of officiating rises at the same rate as the quality of talent in the respective leagues. I'm sure there are evaluation systems in place in each of the leagues, and I hope that they are regularly revised to keep pace with changes in the game. Furthermore, I hope that there are internal disciplinary measures for dealing with officials who quite obviously blow big calls during games. After all, if officials don't have any incentive to get better, why would they try?

I do not, like some fans, think that umpires and referees should be held publicly accountable for their calls and actions. This would lead to many more problems with the system than there already are. Instead, it should be up to the governing body of each league to see to it that all members of the officiating crews are qualified to do the job.

When officials don't do their jobs the right way, the very integrity of the sports league itself can come into question. After an exceptionally poor display of officiating during the NBA Finals, Dallas fans and disinterested third parties alike grumbled about the possibility -- or probability, depending on your point of view -- that the finals were fixed. That is obviously not the type of reputation that a sports league wants to develop or be associated with. And the best way to stay out of that whole mess is to let the players decide the outcome of the games, not the refs or umps.

That's really the bottom line here. Sports fans want to see good games that don't hinge on the calls that officials make, and the only way to get to that point is to make sure the most-skilled officials are on the field of play at all times.