Organizing the Most Thankless Job in Sports

Episode 8

Referees and officials have some of the toughest jobs in sports. Perfection is the expectation, and the blame comes from both teams and every fan the moment something goes wrong. Technology is coming for their work faster every year. Yet most people recognize that officials are essential to the games we watch. Over the last decade, they have also unionized at a rapid pace.

Lucas Middlebrook has been at the center of that shift. He is counsel to the National Basketball Referees Association and the Professional Soccer Referees Association, and began his work with NBA referees some 15 years ago.

Since then, Middlebrook has helped officials in the WNBA, G League, Major League Soccer, National Women's Soccer League, and United Soccer League organize and win contracts. It is no exaggeration to say he has helped an entire occupation improve its working conditions.

Host Harry Marino goes behind the scenes with Middlebrook to talk about the role of a labor lawyer in organizing and collective bargaining, what it takes to win industry-changing gains at the table, and why the hardest organizing fights, like combat sports, are still ahead.

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