Michael Oliver is a man who referees games of football so that the rest of us might enjoy watching them or make a handsome living from playing in them. Without a referee, as Jamie Carragher reminded Sky Sports viewers at the weekend, there is no game.
And yet today Michael Oliver is also a man whose family is under police protection at their home because he made an honest decision to send off a player for a cynical, dangerous studs-up foul on an opponent.
This is the stage we have reached now with the treatment of officials in this country.