Petition to Prioritize Athlete Safety in the WNBA

Watching sports naturally involves witnessing physical competition, and, unfortunately, injuries are inevitable. However, fans are not drawn to sports to see athletes get hurt – unless they’re watching something like boxing.

Throughout the 2024 WNBA season, both in regular and playoff games, it has become alarmingly clear that player safety is not the league’s top priority, and this starts with the referees.

This is not about expecting referees to be perfect — we all know perfection is impossible. However, establishing and enforcing clear boundaries and guidelines for referees to follow must be a top priority going forward. For instance, any contact involving the head should be automatically reviewed.

The goal of this petition is not to dictate the specific rules to the WNBA, but rather to highlight that while aggression is a natural part of physical sports, allowing athletes to be hit in the head without a review to assess whether the contact was incidental sends a troubling message: that the league does not prioritize athlete safety above all else.

Basketball is a physical sport, and that physicality is part of its appeal, so this is not about discouraging competitive or aggressive play...

BUT athletes should be able to step onto the court knowing that if a head shot occurs, it will always be reviewed. Likely deterring reckless aggression in the first place.

This petition is not aimed at protecting any individual player or team but is an effort to safeguard the well-being of all athletes throughout their careers.

Referees are entrusted with significant authority, and it is disheartening to watch any player suffer a brutal hit that goes unchecked. If this continues, we may witness the WNBA embody the old saying, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," in real time.

The broader issue is that what starts on the court is then perpetuated online by fans. With social media amplifying both positive and negative voices, a simple yet impactful step to ensure player safety for the WNBA is to set stricter boundaries that referees must enforce to protect athletes STARTING on the court.

There is much discussion about how to handle internet trolls who thrive on creating chaos and destruction. While the advice to "not feed the trolls" is often the best we can offer in those situations, there is one thing that feeds them more than anything: the eye-gouging, head-smacking, nose-bleeding moments that WNBA referees are calling "fair play."

We cannot rewrite the past, but we can shape a safer future for the WNBA and its rising stars. Thank you for signing this petition and supporting this cause.