NCFL Week 9 Update - Part II

Picking-up where we left off, week nine's game was full of difficult plays to officiate. Often there are games where really only one or two times do you have something odd happen. Something you second guess yourself on or need to have a conference on the field. Week nine's game had way too many of these situations.

I threw a flag for Aiding the Runner. This is when a teammate either pushes or pulls the ball carrier(runner). The Runner must earn the yardage themselves. The home teams was driving to the goal line and when the scrum pile started, several of his teammates began pushing the pile. This happens frequently in games and many offiicials do not see it. They get caought-up in the play and are watching the ball. The penalty is 5 Yards from the spot of the foul.

Things really fell apart when early in the second quarter the visitors threw a pass to the flats. Recall, I work Umpire, so I often will spin or rotate to help on these plays. Often I am the only one in position to see a trap ball. So, I let go of my keys (the players I typically focus on during scrimmage plays), turn to the flats, and witness the airborne receiver snatch the pigskin from the air and plummet to earth into a sea of jerseys. I cannot help on this play so I turn my attention back to mess around the action. I do this to help 'clean-up' and catch any necessary actions away from the play. Everyone is slowing down... no whistle...the play seems to be ending... I still have not heard a whistle... this feels funny... where is the f-ing whistle...

Now, you may be asking why don't I blow mine? Well, Umpires generally do not blow their whistle unless the play ends right in front of them, and if I cannot see the ball, I can't blow the whistle...

Where were we... right, no f-ing whistle... all of sudden a player for the other team is running with the ball... and still, no whistle. What the hell just happened? Apparently, the receiver, thinking he was down, let go of the ball and the other team, thinking it was a fumble, picks it up and runs. The official on that sideline ruled it was a fumble. Well, ya, if you don't kill the play what are people going to think?

One team is happy, the other is pissed, and all of a sudden, I am part of the game. And a few plays later the benefactors of this screw-up score three points. This is not good.

This occurred twice, both caused by the same official.

I had a controversial no-call that I still think I got right. The runner is embraced by to defenders, but forward progress was not stopped. They go to the ground, but the runner falls on-top of another player, rolls onto his feet, and continues running. Nothing other than his hands or feet touched the ground. This was not a tackle. I did have my whistle in my mouth (I use a finger whistle), but thankfully, I did not blow it. Sometimes it hard to believe how fast you can process this stuff when it happens. Again, one team was happy, the other was not, but in my judgement he was not down.

Then we had this one. http://www.pacificaislanders.com/News%20stories/Pacifica%20defeats%20Salinas.html Notice the ball is out before the QB is on the ground. This would be a fumble. Unless, his arm had been in motion, or maybe his left leg, which I cannot see, touched the ground before the ball came loose, or maybe this photo is after his elbow hit the ground and the ball came loose and now he is just trying to protect himself?

I'm pretty sure it was a fumble. This is very difficult to officiate in real-time because you have to watch for several things at once. The primary concern is for the safety of the QB. The guy is getting mauled. If I were the White Hat on this play, I would be focusing on the QB - forget the ball. We would never live it down if the QB gets hurt for some extra-curricular activity.

My point is most of these close calls would be less of a problem if we were not under the microscope due to some crappy no-calls. Once we become part of the game, everything comes into question.

The next contest is the last regular season game.

NCFL Week 9 Update - Part I

An official should never go into a game with expectations of who is going to win. Admittedly, I often do. Most of my colleagues do the same. It has no bearing on my calls or no-calls or have any influence on how I perform. I couldn't care less who actually does wins the game. Completely irrelevant to me. As I have mentioned before, I frequently don't even pay attention to which teams are playing... there is a team in a white jersey and team in a not-white jersey.

This week (week 9) I assumed the undefeated team would beat the .500 team. I worked these two teams last season during the California State Championship game. During this game, both teams were undefeated; however, clearly one team was better than the other --- 58-6 better.

So, going into this game, what was I too think?

When the score was 6-0 at halftime... and the anticipated victors were losing... I was frankly perplexed.

The coach with the goose-egg, of course, blamed the officials for his team losing. And if I am being honest he had plenty to gripe about. Several poorly officiated calls/no-calls by two of the weaker officials on the crew made the entire crew look terrible. These mistakes were accentuated because they all occurred during some form of change of possession when everyone and their mother was watching.

My opinion on this scenario is the coach should never let the game be decided by me (the officials). His team touches the ball 60-70 times a game. I do not influence each and every play, but mistakes may occur on non-routine plays. And when players fumble the ball, weird shit happens. His team fumbles several times. When the ball gets punted, weird shit happens. His team punted a lot. Someone once said, "Three things can happen when you pass the ball and two of them are bad." His team passed a lot. Most of the questionable calls occurred during fumbles, punts and passes. In this league, at this point its maturity, you are going experience officiating mistakes when weird shit happens.

I am not making excuses. This coach got screwed on several plays. It pisses me off when mistakes are made and now I become part of the game. I want people to forget, or better yet, not even notice I was even there. The game deserves good officiating and we earn our money making difficult judgment calls when things start falling apart. The level of officiating does need to improve which I will discuss in another post.

Ultimately, the team who I expected to win did prevail 14-17. There were some interesting plays I'll mention in the next post.

Week 8 Doldrums

Rivalry games can be fun to work. They can also be hard to work. This weeks rivalry game was neither. It was just plain boring.

Oh, there was scoring -- 44-20... or 28. I can't read my writing. But all it really means is the clock was stopped following each score. Neither team drove down the field. Just a lot of turnovers, and then opportune scoring because of the resulting good field position. There were occasional blown coverage resulting in a long touchdown pass. These types of plays may be exciting on TV, but from an officials point of view, this is pretty boring.

From an Umpire point of view, pass blocking is dull. In this league, there is no 'pocket'. There really is no time for a lineman to hold during pass plays. Three step drop and dump the ball off. Boring. An because these guys cannot decide on using a standard game ball, all I end up doing is chasing the ball after the highly probable incomplete pass, placing the ball back on the ground, stepping back to my position, and doing it all over again. And again.

There were way too many offsides for this late in the season. The visitors must have been called for seven offside fouls. There complaint was the Center was moving the ball. The Center's adjustment of the ball was absolutely NOT cause the defense to jump. Every Center adjusts the ball to some degree. As long as he is doing this consistently, which they all do, then no one is being fooled. He is not doing it deliberately. It's routine and part of a rhythm. The defenders were jumping because the QB was changing his cadence, not because of anything the Center was doing.

The home team's Center was very good. Everything the defense was in the neutral zone, we would snap the ball. It becomes a free down. No matter what happens, they will be keeping the ball. I was impressed.

No one really complained about being held. Since I worked this team several times, I guess they know I will not be persuaded.

We did have one great play on a two-point Try. The receiver inside the end zone was coming back to the ball. He caught the ball airborne, reached back, and touched the ball on the top of the pylon. It was quick thinking by the receiver. The pylon is considered to be part of the end zone. As an airborne runner he needs to keep the ball in the field of play. The HL was not on the goal line for some reason, but he did make the correct TD ruling.

Two more weeks of the NCFL league. I may work a second game this weekend with another league. I have not seen the names for the crew.

College Season begins in April

Hard to believe but the college season is already starting. Sunday I attended the first of two college clinics in Stockton. During the clinic we watch film and discuss various play situations. This clinic focused on the two-minute offense. As was pointed out at the clinic, there is very little mentioned in the mechanics manual on how to handle this situation. Ironic as this when some of the most important plays occur during the game.

Midway through the clinic we broke out by officiating position. During the Umpire meeting we focused much of our time reviewing where to line-up during scrimmage downs. There are several points of view on this. The mechanics of the Umpire position are evolving, due in part, to safety concerns for the Umpire. Many of the old school rules-of-thumb donot work all that well with modern football. Do we begin six yards deep or eight yards deep, do you move up to the line-of-scrimmage on passes or stay put, cheat-up during Trys or take a wider view, etc. It all boils down to what each of our conferences what us to do. And no, they are not consistant.

I learned this at the Reno clinic last year. Each conference has a prefered way of working each position. There are no universal standards.

We also had several DI and DII conference supervisors speak about their respective conferences and how one becomes an official in these conferences. Sounds like I can begin to get on the radar, but I would not be accepted until I have five years experience. I'll start applying and see what happens.

The next clinic is July 25th, which is where we take our tests.

NCFL Week #6 - Odd Game

The game this week was very odd, and yet, very good. Odd and good... are good.

Odd because during the first 90 seconds of the 1st quarter there were four turnovers. During the entire game I believe there were ten turnovers. It was pretty bad.

But good because the score was actually close and neither team dominated. The game really could have gone either way.

Odd because the game was tied with the unusual score of 18-18 up until about 2:30 remaining in the 4th quarter. The Warriors were around the Spartans forty yard line with 4th and about three as I recall. All the Spartans had to do was hold the line for one last play. And yes, there was a long snap count, and yes, the Spartans jumped off-sides and made contact, so the Warriors we given a first down.

The Spartans again held the Warriors for three downs. On forth down the Warriors brought out the field goal team and kicked a 44 yard FG. Pretty odd for this league... and pretty cool actually.

Another odd thing was I threw a foul for Sideline Interference. As I was back peddling on an interception, I ran into a coach or player. I really don't know since I was back peddling. The coach made a comment that I should "watch where I am going". I had my hand on my flag because that was pretty close to Unsportsmanlike, but I decided against it.

But, back peddling is the correct mechanic as I should not turn my back to the field of play. But I also now have goal line responsibility in these situations, so you have move quickly. The interception occurred around the ten yard line, so I had about 70 yards of back peddling to do. (I was working Line Judge instead of usual Umpire).

So, not only did the other team intercept the pass and return it to the 30 yard line, but they were given and additional 15 yards due to the foul

Odd, because out of the 19 fouls for the game, I threw seven flags. I never throw this many flags but six of the seven were dead ball fouls for false start or offside.

All-in-all, I don't know that the best team won. I was one of those games were the team that made the fewest mistakes won.

Which, by the way, is not that odd in the NCFL.

NCFL Week #4 Report

Sorry for the delays with the game reports. I became a statistic and received a pink slip at my day job. I've been a bit preoccupied.

The game this week, I am pleased to announce, was actually a good game to work. Two team played, one team won, nobody was hurt, and those who still have jobs went to work on Monday.

The fouls were evenly split between the two teams with twenty-two penalties in total. Average for these games, although we did have more Interference fouls than normal.

Yes, there were crybabies... or stated another way... participants with concerns regarding my propensity to call fouls against their opponent... but, this bullshit (sorry, misplaced distress) goes without saying. And indeed, the perpetual schoolboy declarations of "my daddy can kick your daddy's butt" was ever present. But, this is part of the game, and none of it got out of control.

The game play was pretty evenly matched during the first half. The Barnstormers finally took control during the second half. They appeared to be younger players in better condition.

Nothing interesting from an officiating point of view occurred. Next week I work a semi-pro game that is not NCFL. Let's see if there is a difference in game play between these two leagues.

Pipe Dream Classic Football

Saturday morning I officiated a football game called the Pipe Dream Classic. This was a fun game which pitted the Prison Guards against a collection of other Peace Officers. I really could not tell who was on what team and I don't think anyone really cared. They were all out just having fun.

Pipe Dream means, "An unrealistic hope or fantasy." Befitting. The best part of working this game was watching these guys try to play. Before the game, we are told they want 30 minute QUARTERS with a running clock. Ah, are you sure you really want to play for two hours? "Absolutely", stated the tall, bald, and confident officer. We snickered.

By halftime, and between heavy breaths, both teams asked to cut the quarters down to 15 minutes with a running clock. We thought so.

Play was pretty basic and we used 4-man mechanics. No kickoffs and no rushing on scrimmage kicks (i.e., punts) Following a score we just started the ball at the 40 yard line. Simple.

The game was interesting because they were playing for bragging rights. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. I wish all the games were like this.

This game occured at 11:00 AM and then I have a NCFL game at 6:00.