Are Sports Officials Criticized Too Much?

I have been umpiring baseball at a wide variety of levels for about 7 years and have officiated basketball up to the college club level for about 5 years. I also referee intramural sports like football and soccer in addition to the other two. There has been much criticism over sports officials and the quality of work they produce. So as an official myself I'd like to point my view out as to if sports officials are being criticized too much.

Many coaches have been fined for bad mouthing officials and I don't think that should happen. Heck I've even been told as a broadcaster to not criticize the officials. I take after Jay Bilas to rips into college basketball referees night in and night out. Let's not forget that, at the upper level of sports, officiating sports is their full time job, and they get paid pretty well too. If you're going to officiate at a high level, you have to know what's coming. Now I can see it at the youth level crazy parents getting out of control and the officials don't deserve criticism at that level. But when you're getting paid by your performance, you should be on your A game every time you officiate an event.

Referees certainly make their fair share of mistakes, there's no doubt about it. Players and coaches make mistakes in all sports too. When the official makes a mistake, they should own up to it and expect that criticism. If you can't handle it, this is the wrong job for you.