This Referee Gave Himself A Red Card
come to one’s senses: to start thinking clearly again after behaving in a way that is not reasonable
The first traffic case of the day, in a Tennessee courtroom, began with the judge reading out his own name. “The first ticket today is Michael E. Hinson,” he announced. “That would be me.” Judge Hinson had been caught using his phone while driving, and the ticket was sent to his own court. He could have paid it privately, with nobody watching, like most drivers do. Instead, he called his own case out loud and asked, “Are you guilty?” The answer was yes. The fine came to fifty dollars, plus ten more in court costs. A video of the moment has since been watched more than a million times.
Hinson is not the only official who refused to treat himself differently. In 2005, an English referee named Andy Wain was in charge of an amateur Sunday league soccer game in Peterborough. A goal put one team ahead 2-1, and the other team’s goalkeeper protested loudly. He believed his team had been fouled. After one complaint too many, Wain became angry. He threw down his whistle, untucked his shirt, and aggressively marched up to the goalkeeper, face to face. Then he came to his senses. No punches were thrown, but Wain understood what he had just done. “It was totally unprofessional,” he said later. “If a player did that I would send him off, so I had to go.”
Wain walked off the field in the 63rd minute, and the game had to be abandoned, because there was nobody else to referee it. He had shown the red card to the one person the game could not continue without. So who was really being punished?
Sample sentences
I almost bought a watch that cost half my salary, but I came to my senses before I paid.
After twenty years of smoking, my father finally came to his senses and quit.
I was about to send my boss a very angry email, but I came to my senses and deleted it.
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Tennessee Judge Gets A Traffic Ticket. Then He Adjudicates Himself
