No game for me this week, which I am frankly okay with. Three games a weekend for the past 8 weeks. Sometimes I just need to take a break. I'm not physical drained, as much as I am mentally. I notice the most when I White Hat HS games. I'm getting the rules between HS and College mix-up which is becoming very annoying.
It doesn't help when many of these crews I White Hat with are just thrown together and their skill level is less than par. Trying to do my job and then mentor these yahoo's while coaches are screaming they are not making calls - which is true. All I want is a simple, clean, fast game. This rarely happens. And then my confidence gets weakened.
Every season about week seven or eight I begin to lack confidence. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm pretty confident (pun intended) its due to the number of mistakes I've made. I know I make them -- mostly calls I didn't make but should have. None of these mistakes made a difference in the outcome of the game and most are based upon my own self-critical high standard. Hardly anyone would know. But they are there and I don't forget them until about mid-January.
But maybe its not a lack of confidence and much as it is a weakened spirit.
I think this malaise is partially due to the games being boring. Not as boring as my day-job mind you. And certainly not as boring as watching Oprah. But most of these games are one-sided and pretty much over by halftime. The quality of play is okay I guess, but what I don't see much of is the beauty of the well oiled machine. It's just raw football action with no finesse. As much I love football, this type of play is just not exciting.
The next three weeks, which happen to be the last three weeks of the season, are going to be a pain in the ass. Next week the game is 100+ miles away and does not start until 7:00PM. I won't get home until after midnight for sure. The following week, the game is over 150 miles away. At least this game is at 1:00PM. Which means I'll have to leave the house by around 8:00AM and won't get home until 7:00PM or so. My last game, another 1:00PM start, will be over an hour away.
I'm not complaining. This is still better than my day job.
