Virginia House panel throws penalty flag on bill to protect sports referees from spectator abuse

They might think it, but it's not every day that a member of the Virginia General Assembly opens a policy debate by saying "You suck" to a colleague.

That's exactly what Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, did Monday when a House of Delegates subcommittee took up a bill to impose tougher criminal penalties for abusing sports referees.

Gilbert made the comment as a joke when Del. Chris Collins, R-Frederick, outed himself as a football referee and said he once had to be escorted off the field by sheriff's deputies, even though it wasn't him that "threw the bad flag."

But Gilbert, the chairman of the House Criminal Law subcommittee that heard the bill, later used the comment to make a serious point about why he had reservations about elevating referees as a protected class.

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/general-assembly/va-house-panel-throws-penalty-flag-on-bill-to-protect/article_043acefe-0a83-523c-a9be-2dfbd1251c98.html