Battlefields to Ballfields: How Veterans are Helping Solve the Sports Officiating Crisis (ENCORE)

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Few jobs are more thankless than that of the referee. At best, your existence is completely invisible. No one notices when you do a terrific job. At worst, you become enemy #1 for fans or coaches or in lower levels, angry parents. Combine that with low pay and high pressure, and it's no wonder why officiating is undergoing a crisis at the moment. Not enough people are willing to do the job –– a job without which, the games quite literally cannot go on. But, today, ahead of Veteran’s Day weekend, we revisit the story of Battlefields to Ballfields, an organization working to make military vets part of the solution. And in many cases, it’s the kind of opportunity some struggling former soldiers have dreamed of. For more on Battlefields to Ballfields, you can read McGee’s story here. This episode first ran on November 11, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	With Veterans Day coming this Saturday, Americans everywhere are taking time this week to honor veterans for their service to our country.
0:13.0	For many, the legacy of the sacrifices they made is with them every day.
0:20.0	PTSD, depression, anxiety. After witnessing and experiencing
0:25.7	trauma while overseas, finding stability back at home can be as hard as their service was.
0:33.1	So today, we revisit a story we first brought to you a year ago,
0:38.3	a conversation between Pablo Torre and ESPN's Ryan McGee,
0:42.6	about a program that brings veterans into the local sports community
0:46.5	to do a job they are uniquely well-suited for.
0:51.6	I'm Israel Gutierrez. It's Tuesday, November 7th.
0:56.0	This is ESPN Daily.
0:58.0	Ready?
1:03.0	This is Jameson interview.
1:10.0	Take one. Mark.
1:13.6	It was 2015. April 1st was my retirement date. And it was the week before Thanksgiving was when I realized that I needed help.
1:30.8	Pablo, that's the voice of Jamison Pilgring.
1:35.0	He served 18 years in the Army.
1:38.7	Started off with a tour in Bosnia.
1:40.9	Ended up doing six tours between Afghanistan and Iraq.
1:45.2	The wheels kind of fell off of life, so to speak, for me.
1:50.9	It overdosed on pain meds, muscle relaxers, and alcohol,
1:55.5	which I hadn't known I had taken that much alcohol.
1:58.9	I was dealing with moderate, moderate, sometimes occasional severe PTSD, anxiety,
	...

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