Rain Game

The college game this weekend was the first rain game I worked in several seasons. But, rain games on synthetic fields take something away from the experience. Rain, mud, and slick fields used to be a neutralizer and made the playing field even. Game changing turnovers used to make for some exciting upsets.

This is not to say the there were no fumbles. There were plenty. It just wasn't the same. If we're going to be wet and miserable we might as well be nostalgic and have a mud bath as well.

The real difficulty with this game was keeping the ball dry. I held the ball under a towel between downs and had to scramble backwards to get into my spot.

I don't have a lot to report because my game card was useless in the rain (Game cards are basically pre-printed 3x5 cards. The card just fell apart in the rain.) I don't even remember the score. I didn't throw many flags.

Now, if you are interested in learning a bit more about the position I work during college games, the following newspaper article is very informative.
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081101/SPORTS/711019787&SearchID=73335636808831

And yes, I was knocked down on the first play of tonight game.

Another Varsity White Hat

I worked three games this weekend each with a little drama.

JV

I don't even remember the final score of this game because I slept through most of it. It was lopsided and dull and the five spectators in the stands sucked all the energy from the stadium. Ok, it was Halloween night, but don't these boys have parents to watch them play?

I ran into a coach on my sideline more than once. I should be throwing flags for this -- sideline interference, but they were in the coaches box and this field was poorly marked. No excuse and I should not let them get away with it, but I didn't feel like killing these guys. They were getting murdered on the field.

Late in the forth quarter they finally did score a touchdown. Number 58 was illegally down-field. We didn't penalize them.

Then close to the end of the game, there was a pass in the end zone to my sideline. A great pass, a great leaping catch... the receiver landed with both feet on the sideline. I ruled TD anyway... the heals of his feet hit inbounds first... or so I said. Whatever, they still lost by 30 points.

Varsity

This was my second 11-man Varsity White Hat of the season. I was told before the game this was Senior Night since this was the last home game for the Seniors. So, they did that thing where all the Seniors meet their parents on the field and give them flowers. This took forever.

The game started out as a fairly close contest, but quickly turned into another one-sided affair. At half-time the score was 28-0. Neither team scored in the 3rd quarter. Then, in the 4th, things got interesting.

At 6:50 in the 4th the losing team scores. Now it's 28-7. We decided to move-up to cover an on-side kick. Good thing we did, because that is exactly what they did and they recovered the ball. At 5:28, they scored again. Now it's 28-14. They on-side kick again, but do not recover. But they smell blood.

The winning team now has the ball around midfield, but the Quarterback is sacked three times and they need to punt. The losing team is fired-up. This is an important defensive stand. They have the momentum. This is like a frickin movie.

Then it happens. While the punter is kicking the ball the defender creams the kicker. A huge roughing the kicker foul. The ball went a mile straight-up in the air. The potential blocker said "I touched the ball". No way. Even my Umpire said the ball went between his hands. The coach wants a conference with me. "Didn't he touch the ball?" I retort, "I did not see him touch the ball." "Ok", he replies. He must have seen in my eyes I was absolutely confident I was right.

Well, this completely took the wind out of their sails. This is a 15-yard, automatic first down penalty. Three plays later the offense scored making the final score 35-14.

As far as running the game there were no issues and I felt comfortable. I think I am ready to become the next Crew Chief.

The college game report will be in the next post.

Triple Header - Part III

The college game on Oct 11 pitted a top twenty ranked team against a team who hasn't seen the rankings in years.

From a game management point many of the same old problems persisted. Scrambling for a chain crew, the 25-second play clock was not working, and the clock operator was terrible. On top of that, the new stadium lights are not installed, so they were using portable lighting. It made for a swell time.

We only threw eight fouls all game, so this was pretty dull. I was run into several times by linebackers. The running backs were very adept at using me as a shield. I often get scolded by the players running into me. I frequently hear, "you gotsta get out of my way". To which I reply, "you can see me but I don't see you, so deal with it". They don't really like it when I say that.

I saw several potential holding situations, but the defender was never really struggling to get away. One of the criteria we use to call holding is whether the player being 'held' is being put at a disadvantage. Often a guy is being held, but he is not fighting it. If he is not fighting it, how is he being put at a disadvantage?

As I hinted last post we had a female official on the crew. I had never worked with her before, but she has a reputation for not being a good official. My opinion was she understood the basic mechanics of her position, but does not have a full understanding of the rules. Overall, she did alright, but was not doing a great job on the whistle. We never could hear her blow the damn thing.

I did not have a college game on Oct 18th, but had two high school games the night before. A short post on that 55-7 blowout next time.

Triple Header - Part II

JV

I worked Umpire during the JV game and had one game altering call. Late in the fourth quarter the visiting team QB drops back for a pass, scrambles, gets in trouble, and then chucks the ball downfield to number 43 who makes a outstanding, leaping catch in spite of being double teamed. Too bad his team mate, number 76, drifted four yards down field. During pass plays, linemen are restricted from going downfield beyond the expanded neutral zone (i.e., more than 1 yard). Obviously, the coach was not very happy, especially when the final score was 27-22.

Varsity

As mentioned, this was my first varsity White Hat of the 2008 season and overall, my second 11-man game as varsity Referee (excluding the eight-man game earlier this season).

This game was personally important because I was told I am next in-line to become a Crew Chief. This was both a training exercise and an interview of sorts. There was nothing formal about the process, but had I made any major mistakes it would have been reported back to the assigner.

We are required to give teams twenty-five minutes to warm-up between games. The Freshman and JV games ran long, so the varsity game did not start until 8:05. Swell.

Then the Athletic Director informs me tonight was Homecoming and they have arranged for a special coin-flipper this evening. He was very excited that someone paid $1,000 to have the honor of the coin flip. Great. Of course, the AD never introduced me to the person or explained the format of what was supposed to happen. I guess he was too excited. I finally found out who the person was and made it up.

And to top it off the stadium was packed with people. Adding to the pre-game grief was the Head Linesman was a rookie with this being his first Varsity game ever. Great.

But with all these hiccups what I found very odd was I had no anxiety or nerves. I felt comfortable, relaxed and in control. It helped that this game was the battle of the losers. This is not to say it was easy. When you have two evenly matched teams, and the game is close, the calls/no calls become more important.

Twice during the game I waived off my own flag. The first was on a Roughing the Passer. My initial reaction was the defender drove the QB too hard into the ground. It wasn’t so much that he contacted him, because he was already committed, but it was the way he didn’t let-up at all. After a moment of reflection, I decided it was borderline at best and not a foul.

Then, later in the game when the QB was in trouble, I had to make one of those instantaneous fumble/incomplete pass decisions. I ruled fumble and threw a beanbag to mark the spot. Well, actually I threw a flag. Don’t ask I don’t know either. But I waived off my own flag again. I got ribbed about that all the way home.

I called a Roughing the Holder during a Try. The Try was unsuccessful, so they chose the half-the-distance penalty and attempted two-points. They made it.

I called an Illegal Shift when the Tailback and Fullback both shift at the snap. Good thing I remembered this was a live-ball foul.

Otherwise, a fairly routine game. The game ended at 10:30, which I very late for High School, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

Next post I’ll report on Saturday’s game. Some of my predictions from the previous came true.

Triple Header - Part 1

Friday night 10/10/08

A triple header Friday night on a real grass field reminded me why I love these new synthetic football fields. (We officials affectionately call them ‘plastic’) When these fields were first introduced I expected to have separation anxiety with real grass. There is something nostalgic about the smell of grass, dirty uniforms, and slippery footballs. I really felt it would diminish the game.

But several twisted ankles, sore knees, and having to clean my shoes makes grass seem so last decade. After games on grass fields let’s just skip the post-game beer and go straight to the Advil.

The big news on this Friday night was I worked as Varsity White Hat. I’ll cover this in the next post.

Freshman Game

During this game I worked the Back Judge position which can be pretty boring in a freshman game. My primary responsibilities are pass coverage and punt return, but I also manage the game clock, timeouts, and the twenty-five second play clock.

Two interesting things occurred during this game. First, the visiting team head coach was on crack or something because he was bouncing all over the place. His players all acted like scared little rabbits. The coach shouted the entire game his team was being harmed in some why. “Aiding the runner, he’s aiding the runner”, he kept screaming. No, your defense is getting their ass handed to them, coach. Aiding the Runner is foul by the offense when a teammate of the ball carrier either pushes or pulls the ball carrier. The spirit of the rule is the ball carrier needs to earn the yardage himself.

Another interesting series of events occurred on a kickoff. Following a Touchdown and Extra Point, the teams have one minute to resume play. So, after the extra point, I start my clock, run to the forty yard line and wait for the kicking team. When the minute is up I hand the ball to the kicker, run to the sideline, and raise my hand to let the White Hat know I am ready. When he blows his whistle I start the twenty-five second play clock.

Well, the crackhead coach was taking too long, so I just put the ball on the ground, ran to the sideline, and the White Hat blew the whistle. Twenty-five seconds later, I hit them with a Delay of Game. This is a dead-ball foul, five yards from the previous spot, so now they are kicking from the thirty-five yard line.

During this game the wind was blowing so hard, the ball would not stay on the kicking tee. We stopped the clock three times before one of the members of the kicking team held the ball for the kicker.

When they finally do kick the ball it rolls Out of Bounds (OB) untouched. A Free Kick OB is a live-ball foul with three penalty options. The options are: five yard from previous spot and re-kick, add five yards to the OB spot, or take the ball twenty-five yards in advance of the kicking spot.

The receiving team coach elects for the re-kick. So, crackhead is now kicking from the thirty yard line. The next kick also rolls OB untouched. This kicker had one hell of a leg and would be awesome had the wind not been blowing so hard. But alas, we push them back five more yards to the twenty-five yard line.

And yes, the third kick also went OB. The receiving coach finally elects to take the twenty-five yards in advance of the kicking spot, so he gets the ball at the fifty yard line.

This entire sequence wasted almost seven minutes of the game time. And my Varsity game paid the price.

A little behind

Life is getting is the way of my posting, so I'm a little behind. I have seven games to report on including tonight's college game. Relax... I'll condense everything. Although tonight's game is at the facility that is notorious for terrible game management. See http://pigskinref.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-is-college-football.html for a preview. I'm sure I'll report the same problems as last season.

Another interesting twist for tonight's game is we have a female official who rubs some people the wrong way. I have not worked with her before, but one of the male officials on this game really has a hard time with her. A lot of history between them. This may make for some interesting reading.


I have the day off on Monday, so I should be able to get back on schedule.

09/28/08 Weekend Game Wrap-up

College Game

Saturday's game was a a good contest between two teams ranked in the top 10 for our region. These games tend to be difficult to officiate and this one was no different.

As a crew we called thirty fouls, disqualified a player, threw a sideline warning on the head coach, and easily had ten unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. On top of that we must have had three late hits out of bounds. This typically happens between two teams who are good. They play aggressive.

Nothing really strange happened in this game other than the losing coach wanted holding on every play. I did call a hold on a long touchdown run, but there is no way he can blame me for a 42-17 loss. The holding was a classic. Even though the offensive players hands were inside the frame of the defender, I clearly saw him twist the shoulders of the defensive player. When you see the player make an unnatural move like that you know something is up. And when the ball carrier runs right by the guy doing the holding then its pretty obvious what just happened.

What I found annoying as hell were the some of the players from the winning team. What ever happened to letting your actions speak for themselves? They are cocky, arrogant, and have no honor. Play hard, kick their ass, and punish them for even thinking they can score on you. I'm cool with that. That's Football. But have some class. I see brief glimpses of class on the field, but very little. When I begin to hear players say, "can't we just end this game?" I know the 'class' has left the field.

We had another observer at this game who said we all did a good job keeping a difficult game under control. But I know I made some mistakes. I was really tired from some reason. I'm sure I missed some cheap shots because I was looking in the wrong place.

This Friday night I have the big game between the #2 and #4 ranked teams in the county. The college game is one of my road trips. A 7PM game in Fresno. I won't get home until after 2AM.

Eight is Enough... and more Intentional Grounding

This week I worked two high school games and one college.

High School Game

This game was somewhat of a milestone. First, this was a Varsity White Hat, so kinda, sorta like a promotion. Second, it was an 8-man football game. Yes, you can play football with eight players.

There are several small schools in the area just starting football programs, most of which are Christian based schools. Although not as intense as 11-man the quality of the football is not lacking. It is a very different game, however.

For instance the field is smaller -- only 80 x 40 yards (verses 100 x 53 for 11-man). The field used during this contest was quite unique. Rather than painting or chalking the yard lines the grounds keeper simply killed the grass. As I'm walking towards the field I'm thinking, "holy shit, there are trenches for yard lines." The trenches were an illusion. The field was perfectly flat, but the three inch grass made the 'depression' look huge. The field also lacked goal posts and most of the western endzone overlapped the infield of the baseball diamond; somewhere between first and second base as I recall.

And adding to the ambiance was the portable lighting system. All night we had light shining horizontally into our eyes and the constant droning of six gas powered generators. If the QB threw the ball high enough the ball sorta vanished for a moment. Nice.

With the shorter field, kickoffs are from the thirty verses the forty. There were several Touchbacks during the Kickoffs which is rather unusual for high school. The only other major difference is you need five players (verses seven) on the line of scrimmage, but most of the other rules are the same.

The game does play very different than 11-man. Holes open up faster and once a runner gets past the line there seems to be only one linebacker or safety to stop him. The final score was 54-40, so this this gives you a clue of what I am talking about. With all the scoring the game time was longer than a typical 11-man game - 2:45.

One interesting play occurred late in the third quarter. The team which ultimately lost was at their own 15 yard line with 2nd down and fourteen. The QB rolls out for a pass and is immediately in trouble running for his life. The poor kid was all of 5'2'' and looked like a scared rabbit. He rolls out of the pocket, scrambles towards the sidelines, and feeling the breath of his 6'3'' pursuer, dumps the ball to out of bounds. I toss my flag for Intentional Grounding (IG).

The QB says, "...but I was outside the pocket", to which I retort, "yes you were, but we are playing with Friday night rules." His coach asked to speak with me about this, and of course, stated the same thing. He is obviously coaching the QB to do this. I politely informed the coach the IG rules are different between high school and other levels. I was all over this call and if you read last weeks post you recognize why I would be a bit hypersensitive about IG. The unfortunate thing for his team was IG is a five-yard, spot foul (meaning, enforced from where the pass was thrown), PLUS a loss of down. The QB threw the pass at the 3-yard line. Two plays later the QB was sacked for a Safety.

Otherwise, a pretty routine game. This was technically my second varsity White Hat game, but the first where I was not working with my regular crew or my crew chief was working another position. I was truly on my own from a leadership point of view.

The college game report will be in the next post. A wild game with two team ranked in the top ten in the state.

Being Kinda Right is no Option - The Final Chapter

Lesson Learned #2

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote

Truman Capote is the one of the last people I'd associate with football, but I'm hoping his metaphor rings true. That lessons learned during screw-ups make uncertain future success that much more satisfying.

The screw-up occurred midway through the second quarter. And screw-up does not even begin to describe the severity of this mistake. For screw-up, Roget's recommends; botch, blunder, foul up, mess up, mishandle, spoil, make a muck of. The description to harm irreparably through inept handling is pretty close.

The play itself is pretty simple. The quarterback rolls out to my left, scrambles for a bit, and then throws the ball away. Simple. Basic. And apparently easy for the officials to botch.

As soon as the football skids across the feild the White Hat throws a flag for Intentional Grounding (IG) . This didn't make any sense to me. IG occurs when the QB dumps the ball to save a loss of yardage (i.e., to prevent a sack). Clearly, this is why the QB dumped the ball on this play. However, if the QB is outside the of the normal tackle position (i.e., outside of the pocket) when the pass is thrown you have two criteria to consider before it becomes a foul.

The first is whether the ball is thrown pass the line of scrimmage (LOS). If the QB is outside the pocket and the ball crosses the LOS, then IG should NOT be called. The second is whether the QB is outside the pocket and there is a receiver with a reasonable opportunity to catch the pass. If so, then IG will also NOT be called.

During our game the QB was outside the pocket and the ball was thrown beyond the LOS. No foul. Yet we enforced a penalty for IG. This was a botch, but this is not the BOTCH I have been teasing you about.

Why did we enforce a phantom foul? The White Hat generally has no idea where the pass goes. He should be watching the QB and nothing else. If he feels the QB is throwing the ball away to avoid a sack then he tosses a flag. The protocol during these situations is the wing official hustles over to the White Hat and tells him either there was a player in the area or whether the ball crossed the LOS or not. This did not happen.

Neither did the deep official (he is the official who speaks with the coach) get the foul information and report to the coach. And finally, I didn't question the White Hat on the pass crossing the LOS. I should have asked the White Hat what was reported. This is a simple technique to save the White Hat from doing something stupid. And I knew there was no foul. I knew this was not right.

But at the time I did not have the confidence I knew the rules on IG. The White Hat is Mr. Rules. He is a Crew Chief in our High School association. He's been officiating since the 1960's. He was my college mentor last year. I trusted him. And he was wrong. It's my job as umpire to cover his ass.

I now confidently know the IG rules and will never forget them. I've seared them into my brain. So, major mistake. We penalized a team that did not foul.

But it gets worse.

The penalty for IG is five yards from the spot of the foul PLUS a loss of down. We did not enforce the loss of down. Meaning, we let them repeat the down. We gave them another down. I don't even remember what down it WAS, let alone what is was supposed to be, but this is cardinal rule #1, go straight to hell and do not collect $200 kinda botch. Know what down it is and never, never, never, EVER give a team an extra down. This is Officiating 101. It's preschool officiating.

So here is the rub; if there was no foul, then it was an incomplete pass and the down ends. If it was a IG foul then they would lose the down. Get it? Botch with a capital B.

And of course they scored two plays later. (Insert awkward silence) Good thing they lost the game.

It doesn't end here. Our entire crew was downgraded. Here is an except from the weekly bulletin "This situation is a CREW downgrade as 5 other members, within their responsibilities during penalty enforcement failed to recognize, question or communicate the loss of down situation."

Downgrading is a form of disciplinary action. Everyone at some point gets downgraded for mistakes. Even the NFL guys. But too many of these and you'll never get moved up.

Its been a week and I still cannot stop thinking about this.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. I can't think about eating. Too much egg on my face and I am crying over spilled milk.

Being 'kinda' Right is not an Option - Part II

Being Kinda Right in College

Last Saturday I worked two College games. One was great. The other was a complete disaster.

First Game
The first game started at 1:00PM ended in 2:50 minutes in spite of a score of 38-22 and nine timeouts being called. I'm still loving this new timing rule. The game ran smoothly and the game was easy to manage. We only had a total of thirteen fouls.

I did throw an Illegal Helmet contact on a tackler. That was easy. I also threw a Personal Foul when #55 drive both this hands into the chest of opponent. I could have tossed him for fighting, but told the White Hat I did not want to eject him. I didn't need to. You could hear his coach screaming across the field "I told you never to retaliate!". He's right. We always catch the second guy. Otherwise a simple game. Then came the second game.

Second Game
The second game began at 7:00PM. By 8:00 I wish I was somewhere else.

The White Hat and I worked the 1:00 game and we also were working the 7:00 game. The first game ended at 3:50, but by the time we completed the game report, took a shower and drove to the 7:00pm game, we did not arrive until 5:30pm. We were rushed.

Being rushed didn't help as this was a difficult game to officiate. There were several personal fouls, and an Unnecessary Roughness when the a defender threw the QB out of bounds and then the QB retaliated. I think there were four flags on the ground.

I threw a flag on an open field Chop Block. The 'low' part of this block needs to be at the thigh or below. I wish I could see the film to confirm the low block. At worst we was at the thigh, but on film it will look pretty dramatic. The defender went head-over-heals folowing the block.

In all there were twenty-six fouls during the game.

I nearly had an Inadvertent Whistle when a receiver muffed a pass, it falls towards the ground, hits a defender on the foot, springs into the air and is finally intercepted. I had moved the whistle into my mouth when the receiver muffed anticipating the incomplete pass. By the time the third player was going after the ball, I had taken it out. That was a close one.

I was involved in two controversial calls, one of which I'm still feeling the sting about. I learned a lot during this game.

Lesson Learned #1

The first was on a pass to the flats to my right. The QB put a lot of heat on the pass so I had to turn quickly to help with coverage. The ball was behind the receiver and thrown short. A defender stretches for the ball and it does a shoe-string catch. I instantly signal incomplete. I know I heard the ball hit the ground and from my angle the ground assisted the receiver with the catch. The wing official did not protest my call, but later said he felt his hand was under the ball. I still felt the ground assisted.

What complicates my call is the interception occurred right in front of the wing official. No, he was trailing the guy who intercepted the pass where I was observing from the front. This is why I turn to assist on these type of passes, because I have a better angle. After the game I asked one of the deep officials who is a former Umpire what his opinion was. Did I go fishing is someone else's pond?

He felt it is OK for an umpire to make that call, but it's one of those things you have to be 100% positive about. The question is -- was I in the best position to make that call? He felt I was still in the process of moving. I had not planted my feet and I was not in the best position to make the call, right or wrong.

In hindsight, I still believe my call was correct, but when this situation occurs again I will add to my mental checklist "am I positioned to make this call." If I'm not positioned properly, how can I really make a call like that even if I am right?

Lesson Learned #2, is a big, painful, humbling lesson I'll describe in the next post.

Being 'kinda' Right is not an Option - Part I

Being Kinda Right in High School Game

Last week I worked four games; two High School and two College. Working two High School games in a row is easy. But that extra twelve minutes in a College game really adds-up. By Saturday night, I was beat.

Before the JV game (I was the White Hat) the visiting coach asks me about a defensive play they want to run. He tells me the home team runs an option offense and they want to 'take out' the option man. By 'take out' he means tackle or drive the guy out of the play. Essentially, take the option out of the option.

My first response was 'no' that would be holding. The coach says, 'but it's behind the line'. Well, ya, that means there is no 'interference'. I told him if a runner is simulating being the ball carrier then he can be tackled, but in the case of an option, he is only a 'potential' runner. I said, let me talk to the other guys and see what the consensus is. Nothing like running a game by committee.

We decided that if the ball was being passed to the option man, then we would allow contact, but if there was contact prior to the ball being released, then this would be a foul. We decided it would be a person foul for unnecessary contact.

Luckily, they never succeeded when they attempted this play because we would have ruled it improperly. In 2-3-5-b it says "when a player simulates possession of the ball, reasonable allowances may be made for failure of the defense to discover the deception. This does not cancel the responsibility of any defensive player to exercise reasonable caution in avoiding any unnecessary contact."

Taking out the option-man is not avoiding unnecessary contact so we were 'kinda' right. OK, this play is clearly wrong. But what is the call?

In 9-2-3-c is says the defensive player shall not; use his hands to hook, clamp, grasp, encircle or hold in an effort to restrain an opponent other than the runner." In my opinion, this list a series of examples and not an exhaustive list of acts. The key word is 'restrain'. So, the foul would be holding, enforced from the end of the run.

The Varsity games was a one-sided contest and a fairly routine game. I had one exciting call at the pylon. The snap was at the eight, so we were in goal-line mechanics. The ball carrier came to my side on the sweep and sprinted to the pylon. I backed-off the goal-line and the ball carrier leaped for the goal. Alas, he stepped on the sideline as he fumbled the ball forward at the two. The other coach was screaming he fumbled into, and then out-of, then end zone. He wanted a Touchback. The ball never went into the end zone.

Some major mistakes and a 'what was I thinking' call made during the college games in the next post.

New Timing Rule is Awesome

Saturday's game was hot. Frickin hot. And then on top of that it was hot.

The field itself (grass) was in okay shape, we had a twenty-five second clock that actually worked, the chain-crew actually did a good job. The home team provided water and sports drink, towels and soap for showers. Nothing to gripe about.

The new NCAA timing rules seem to be working. Our game finish in exactly three hours. This was with twenty-five penalities, eleven time-outs, and final score of 38-16, so there were plenty of times where the clock stopped. Last season the average was something like 3:15. I'm loving the new clock mechanic.

In simple terms the clock is now only stopping on incomplete passes. For plays going out of bounds (could be a run, completed pass, fumble out of bounds, backward pass, etc.) the clock will start on the Ready. Once I put the ball down the White Hat starts the clock. The clock will still be start on the snap on change of possession and and will be stoped to move the chains as ususl. The twist is within two minutes in the 2nd and 4th quarters we fall back to the previous timing rules. But for 56 minutes, it is pure bliss.

The game started on a strange note. During the opening kickoff, the 25-second clock expired way before the kickers were even close to kicking the ball. When I say expired, I mean it was '00' for five seconds. I threw a flag for delay of game. As umpire, this is not my call, but no one seemed to be paying attention. I heard the coach say "that was ticky-tack". Well, ya, it was, but why bother having the rule if we aren't going to follow them. We keep getting preasured to speed the games up, so what the hell. And you damn well know if it was the the other team he'd be screaming. Nonetheless, I won't do that again.

We had an unusual Illegal Batting by the offense following a blocked scrimmage kick. Batting, in case you are not familiar, is intentionally striking or intentionally changing the balls direction with the hands or arms. So, in this case, the blocking of the scrimmage kick (punt) is technically batting, but that touching is ignored. What is not ignored is after the kick is blocked a player from the kicking team leaps in the air and intentionally strikes the ball so it goes forward. Batting is complicated because sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. I'll do a post just on batting soon. Luckily, batting does not occur often, but when it does it is a 15-yard, loss of down penalty. But there are exceptions to this also.

I threw flags for Chop Block, False Start, Ineligible Receiver Downfield, and a Defensive Holding.

The new Chop Block rule is also great. More on this next time.

There we also several defensive holding fouls during pass plays.

Gridiron Brain Fart - Part II

Varsity Game

During Friday's Varsity game, I moved to Line Judge. I have not worked the wings for quite some time, but soon felt at home.

The game was a one-sided runaway game with the visitors winning 35-6. The visitors scored thirty-five points and I threw flags for holding which called back two touchdown runs. On the second holding call two of the other officials also threw flags and said "number thirty-nine, right?" Yup.

I also threw a flag for a huge facemask. The White Hat also threw a flag for this. It always looks good when there is more than one flag on these fouls.

We did have this awkward moment as a crew. When the home team was driving for their only score they got to the 1/2 foot line. Then they false started. The crowd was deflated. Then, they drive back to to the 1/2 foot line. The tension in the stadium was thick. People were pissed we didn't just give them a TD. On the next play, they run to the opposite hash mark. I have no idea where the ball actually is, but I'm pretty sure they have scored. I'm looking at my partner across the field... what the heck, is it a score or not... dude, you're killing us here. After something like ten seconds he finally rules TD.

The best part for the night, which made up for my brain fart (see previous post), was correcting our association leader. He was working Umpire and walked off a holding penalty. The problem was it was an all-but-one enforcement and he marked it off from the end of the run. This was a six yard distinction. After he had already marched it off and put the ball on the ground, I had remind him the flag was behind the end of the run. And, yes, I am gloating.

Gridiron Brain Fart

Friday night I worked a JV and Var game. The JV report is list below. The Var will be next posting.

"Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose that you resolved to effect." Shakespeare, "The Tempest". This will make more sense as you read on.

JV Game:

Excluding an Inadvertent Whistle the JV game, the contest was pretty routine for a season opener. I was anxious before I arrived at the stadium, but once I got there I settled in. After a series or two, I was back into the routine. There was the ubiquitous holdings, false starts, and encroachments. Nothing too exciting. Until early in the 4th quarter.

The visitors intercepted a pass at the six yard line. Then a false start took them back to the three. On the next play the QB drops back for a pass, the pocket breaks down, he scrambles for his life, and finally fumbles the ball in the endzone when the defenders reach him. He was not making an attempt to throw the ball. So, now we have a loose ball in the endzone. This is not going to end well for the offense no matter what happens.

Now, this is where I forgo-ed the purpose I resolved to effect. I made a colossal screw-up because I could not make-up my frigging mind.

During certain situations in the game, one of the axioms officials use is -- try to make the play what it wants to be. I wanted to make this play an incomplete pass. This poor team was getting killed and this unfortunate set of circumstances wasn't helping. I did not want to give the home team a Safety, but I just couldn't turn it into an incomplete pass.

So since I'm not ruling incomplete pass the play cascades into a scrum for the ball. But I still haven't given-up trying to make this an incomplete pass. Ok, fine its a fumble. Sorry guys. When I awake from this stupor, I'm thinking, oh crap, this is a loose ball... in the end zone... this is going to end in a Safety or TD... oh crap, which color is offense again... oh crap, why didn't I just rule incomplete... oh crap, why am I blowing my whistle!!!

As I'm blowing my frigging whistle the defenders jump on the ball. I pause. Oh my god, what have I done. So, now I want to crawl in a hole. How am I going to get out of this one?

My crew said my hands go up and it appeared I was ruling Safety, but then I separated them to rule TD. They were right. I was so focused on the Safety, or the prevention of the Safety, only at the last second did it register this was a TD for the defense.

Technically, I blew an inadvertent whistle, however it would be splitting hairs whether it impacted the outcome of the play. There were no offensive players around the ball. The play ended the way it would have ended.

If I was thinking clearly, I should have swallowed my pride and given the offense the Inadvertent Whistle. They could have replayed the down... better than ruling an incomplete pass.

In retrospect, in a JV game with the score 33-0, had the QB been tackled, I would have no choice than to rule Safety. But, it was a pass play, I'd make the play what it wants to be -- an incomplete pass even if it wasn't.

I haven't had a brain fart like this is a long time.

"Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose that you resolved to effect."

Bill, you're right. Make up my mind and stick with the decision.

The Offensive Coach Unhappy with a DPI Call?

I worked college scrimmages, albeit inter-squad, last Thursday and Saturday.

Thursday's scrimmage only lasted about an hour. Okay, I guess, but not a lot of work for an hour drive. Our sixth official (a female) never arrived, so we did five-man mechanics. I don't think the coaches even noticed.

But the head coach was smart enough to ask an interesting question following a DPI call. Here is the scenario:

It was 2nd and 8 and a DPI was called 11 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The pass was caught, they made the line to gain, and earned a first down. In these cases the DPI would be declined because DPI fouls within 15 yards are 'spot fouls'. There is no yardage penalty, but there is an automatic first-down at the spot of the foul. In a sense, DPI within 15 yards of the LOS, is an awarded catch. But since they made the line-to-gain there is no need for the automatic first-down. Just decline the penalty and let's get out of here.

But this cleaver coach asks - can I decline the spot foul (ignore the completed catch) and take the penalty from the previous spot? (DPI fouls beyond 15 yards are enforced from the previous spot). In other words, forgo the automatic first, but take 15 yards from the previous spot and gain 15 yards instead of 11. A net +4. He wasn't upset his man was fouled, but rather he was fouled too early. Interesting.

At certain times during the game yards are more important than and 'benefit' of an awarded catch. Its late in the game and they need yards to get close to field goal. It may be advantageous for the defense to foul if the passes are short. Better to give them the awarded catch than the chance of catching the ball and gaining even more yards.

The college rules have a bias towards punishing the defense, but in the case of DPI on short passes, the benefit may be in the favor of the defense.

Let me know what you think.

Friday night will be my first High School games for the season. I'm the White Hat for the JV game and then move to Line Judge for Varsity. I'm working with the leader of our association during the Varsity game.

As you may recall, I recently asked if I could be considered for the next available Varsity White Hat position. I think I'm being watched during the JV game... like a test. I'll let you know.

A full schedule

My first season as a full staff member at the college level is a full schedule - eleven games. This is very good news since the typical schedule averages eight-nine games.

I have a bye week 9/20, but I have two games on 9/13. The first is at 1:00 and the second is at 7:00. Since we have to be dressed and ready two hours before game time, and the first game is sixty miles away, my day will begin at 9:30AM and not end until about 10:30PM. The first game will end around 4:30 and then I rush to the second game. The good news is the second game is on the way home, but still a forty mile drive. Good thing I have the same White Hat for both games, so the games can't start without him. Still, a thirteen hour day.

For the eleven games , the total number of miles I'll be on the road is 1,540. I have two games with round trips greater than 250 miles with the longest being 310 miles. I can't complain too much about 310 miles because the Side Judge has a 494 mile round trip. I believe these are considered 'travel' games and they will pay for us to spend the night.

As far as White Hat's go this season is very different than last year. Last year I may have had the same White Hat only once. This season I have four games with Frank, three with Jim, two with Milt, and one with Jerry. Frank, Jim, and Milt are from my local college group as well as officials in my High School group. Milt was my High School Crew Chief for a period of time.

Scrimmages begin this Saturday, but as usual, there is some drama. As usual, the college scrimmages conflict with the High School clinic. I just got an email today saying we have two college scrimmages at 11:00. How are we supposed to do that and participate in the High School clinic?

Training Film

Below is a link to one of the training films we just received. This film is narrated by Rogers Redding, the Rules Editor for th e NCAA Football Rules Committee. Mr. Redding was one of the instructors at the Reno Football Camp I attended this summer.

The film emphasizes the 2008 Point of Emphasis. Each season the rules committee (this is true for High School also) works with coaches, administrators, and game officials to identify areas of the game which need some focus. As you will see from the film, most of these issues are safety related and the fouls are not being called.

Take a look. Let me know what you think.

http://web1.ncaa.org/web_video/football/2008FootballRules.html

Another Test Done. Still no Schedule.

Just finished the High School summer test. This is not the qualification test, but a good warm-up test to get you thinking about about the rules. The test consists of 100 true/false questions. Most are pretty easy and it is nothing like the college tests. Here are some examples:

• If a forward pass touches an official who is in the field of play, the pass is ruled incomplete even if it is subsequently caught by a player of either team?
• R1 (a player on the receiving team) may not fair-catch a free kick in the neutral zone?
• A dead ball may become live only by legal snap or free kick?
• Butt blocking is illegal in the open field but permitted only in close line play?
  

Send me your answers. I'll post the answer next in my next entry.

I still do not have my college schedule which is becoming frustrating.

Planning to Plan

It's August 2nd and I have not received my college schedule. The coordinator sent us an email stating the system that schedules the games either was not working or had inaccurate information.

The email was broken out by position and it looks like eight of the Umpires are not available most of the weeks. We have twenty-two Umpires and sixteen games per week, so this should mean I'll get a full schedule this season. Last season I worked eight out of twelve games... which wasn't bad for a Candidate.

It also appears from the what he sent that many of my fellow officials are also working other conferences. This is good news. During our clinics, camps, and other meetings, we are repeatedly told the CCFOA is good recruiting ground for the other conferences. The fact there are scheduling conflicts confirms this is true.

Monday night beings my high school football meetings. I really hate going to these meetings. They are not well run and a lot of time is wasted. Plus there are ten meetings this year. I'm already going to miss one meeting because I have to travel for work.

I understand we need a certian amount of training ohurs each season to qualify... fine, but could we either make the meetings longer, so there are fewer of them, or just get them all over with in one week? I don't mind putting the time to study and prepare. Hell, I'm doing football all year now and constantly study, but I can't promise I will make ten Monday nights in a row.

My business trip will be later this month and will conflict with a meeting on 8/26. I'm sure this will be 'mandatory' meeting where we turn in our tests and if I don't attend I won't get playoff games again.

On another note, I made a request to the HS coordinator that I'd like to be considered for the next Varsity White Hat position. There are two White Hats that will retire very soon and three of the existing White Hats have stated I'm ready.

The coordinator has not replied.

Qualifying Exam Finally Over

Saturday was the annual Summer Clinic in Stockton. We met at 5:00AM to make the 7:00AM start time. We did not finish until after 3:00PM. It was a long friggin day.

The clinic combines training sessions with the qualifying exam. The association (called The ORG) takes this meeting so seriously that if you do not attend, you will either get no games, or have reduced schedule. It's a big deal.

During the clinic we learned we are getting an increase on the game fees. The feedback from the coaches is they see we are improving and feel the raise is justified. Good news.

During one of the meetings the leaders asked all the new officials to stand. Eight stood-up. Then one year guys - eight more. Then two and three years. We were told this accounted for forty-six out of 142 guys. Thirty-three percent of the Org has less than four years. That's hard to believe. We need more people. And the coaches want us to go to seven man mechanics. We do too, but we need more bodies.

The training consists of new rule review and lots of film. This year was much better than last year. The film was better quality and the plays we reviewed were very black and white. What I mean is the examples for hitting a Defenseless Player, or Chop Block were very easy to see and make it very clear what to watch for.

At one point we broke out into position specific meetings. The Umpire group was lead by Carl Paganelli Coordinator of Officials for the Mid-American Conference. We walked through multiple play scenarios covering what we should be keying on and what he looks for when rating an official (upgrades and downgrades). Then we reviewed more film focusing on what the Umpire was looking at... and most often what he was missing.

We got into a lengthly debate with Carl on Punts. The issue was how long to spend watching play on the line of scrimmage verses watching flyers hitting the strikezone. We felt if we have two players going at one another and the white hat is with kicker we cannot just spin to watch the action in the strickzone. We need to watch these two players. The counter argument was statistically there are less fouls with these two players than with fouls on players in the strikezone and the fouls in the strikezone are typically more volient and safety related. If you are going to err, err on the side of the two players who are only going to hurt themselves. I'm not sure I buy this. Carl did not and said so to our corrdinator.

There were two tests; one on mechanics and the second on rules. The former was pretty easy. Missed one out of twenty five. The second test was very difficult and I missed three.

I'm glad this part of the season is over. I should get my schedule by Aug 1st.

All-Star Game Finally Fails to Meet Expectations

Each time I work an All-Star game I have a story to tell and last weekend's High School All-Star game is no exception. The story is... there is no story. No fights, no game ending brawl, no scar on the city's reputation. Absolutely nothing negative happened. The players played, we officials stayed out of the way, and the competition was evenly matched. The game was decided by an earlier 2 point Try which failed and a last minute TD pass. The final score was 20-21. If I were prone to clichés I'd call this game - one for the books.

But, there is always a story.

Our High School associations uses five man mechanics to officiate games. Most HS games across the country at the Varsity level use five man. But for this game our assigner said we would use seven officials. OK. I guess. My experience with seven man was limited to last weeks college camp and my entire college experience has been six man mechanics. Only two of us had any college level experience. The fans may get more than they bargained for.

So thirty minutes before the game, there was a covey of officials huddled around a book trying to figure out who does what on seven man.

I was originally scheduled to work Side Judge. Twenty minutes before game time we only had five officials, so I moved to Line Judge. With ten minutes to spare before game time the sixth man finally arrived. He went to the wrong stadium. The bottom line is the seventh guy never made it to the game, so we went to six man and I moved to Umpire.

Before the game we were instructed on some rule alterations. Such as no blitzing. What exactly does blitz mean? For this game it meant only five rushers and only those on the line of scrimmage. How about no rushing for 'three Mississippi' also? Like I have time to count five guys rushing and determine if they were on the LOS. No one said they had to be down linemen. The DB covering the wide out is on the LOS. A few of my crew mates threw flags for this 'blitzing' foul, and then we heard 'but I was in a three point stance'. We simply pointed out we knew how to count to five.

The format this year was different than previous years. Apparently the teams practiced together for two weeks before the game. They knew each other and seemed to respect one another. It had the feel of an inter-squad scrimmage rather than the East vs. West of previous years. This seemed to help keep the game under control.

The game sponsor spent a great deal of time with the young men explaining they would be removed from the game if they crossed the line. And he made the line very thin - zero tolerance for anything that would mare the game. No questions asked. I liked that.

For most of these players this will be the last time they will put on pads. They all played that way and most of them gave the game, and their fellow warriors, the respect they deserved.

The game was not perfect. I threw an Illegal Block Below the Waist on the Center against a blitzing Line Backer. I suppose those could have been offsetting fouls, but that would have been just weird. The LB never actually made it pass the LOS, so I guess what I called was right.

I also threw a flag for Holding. The Center again, grabbing the shoulder pads and then twisting the defender just as the ball ran by him. There may have also been a Chop Block I missed, but it was on the backside of the play.

Not a juicy story like last year, but still a story.

Confessions of a Referee - College Camp Update

Last weeks Football Officials Camp at the University of Nevada, Reno was outstanding. I learned more in three days than I have in the past five years. Several major personalities in Football Officiating were on staff as mentors and coaches. The staff-to-official ratio was 3:1. It was as close to one-on-one mentoring as you can get. And these guys were not just anybody. They were somebodies representing the NFL, Big-12, PAC-10, MWC, SEC, ACC, WAC, and a few other conferences. Some names you may recognize include; Jon Bible, Red Cashion, Jerry Markbreit, Carl Cheffers, Rogers Redding, Ken Rivera, Dan Romeo, Dave Warden, Doug Rhoads, Walt Anderson, Ron Capra, to name a few.

So, what happens at one of these camps besides meeting a bunch of great people, having a lot of fun, and enjoying four days of football away from your normal life? This alone is worth the cost, but what really happens at this camp is you work. A lot. From 6:30 AM to about 8:30 PM. Long ass days, but so much better than your day job. You get very tired, but its a 'good' tired.

The Officials Camp is concurrent with a player Football Camp. There must have been fifty High School Football teams playing scrimmages. So, when we took the field, there were two teams who wanted to pound on each other. These were full contact scrimmages.

The scrimmages took place on a dozen or so fields, so each day we rotated to a different set of fields.

The 'we' I refer to was my crew. Before you arrive at the camp you are assigned to a crew who you work with the entire week. My crew was pretty good and was made up of guys from California and Texas.

At each of the scrimmage stations we each has a position coach who took notes and critiqued us. I had one-on-one mentoring from Tony Michalek, Russ Pulley, Scott Novak, and Ruben Fowler. Not too bad.

After a scrimmage session we would head back to the meeting room for class room discussions. Some of these discussions reviewed the new rules for 2008, officiating philosophies, tons of film review. Then, back on the field.

On Wednesday, my crew was filmed. Part of the program is to be filmed working a live scrimmage and then having the film critiqued play by play. This is very educational. And very intimidating. But, if you want to move up the ladder, you better get used to it. This is deal.

My film review was, in my opinion, average. I did somethings correct, other areas I need to improve. I clearly need to move with 'purpose', and at times, I am not staying with my keys long enough. I know why I am doing this. It just turns out I was wrong.

I did get conflicting feedback from my position coaches. At first I expected to learn the 'right' way. Or at least learn how I was missing the mark. But, it turns out, there is more than one way to umpire. Technique is one thing, but presence is another. Presence is what I really need to work on. And since I am only 5'9'', I need a shit-load of presence to stand out. I did get a lot of mentoring on how to show presence and I am each to try this out on the field.

Overall, the comments were "good job, watch my weight, and you are where you belong at this point of your career." Well, that's what I expect to hear. 2008 will only be my 2nd year of NCAA ball.

There is so much more to report on the camp. I'll include this in the next few posts.

Friday I am working the High School All-Star game again. Let' see if this is as much of a joke as last year.

And then Saturday night I am working the MLFA (Minor League Football Alliance) West State Championship Game. This means it is the California State Championship. The winner of this game plays for the National Championship for Spring Teams, who then would play the winner of the Fall Teams for the overall MLFA World Alliance Bowl. Kinda cool. I'll let you know how this goes.

College Football Begins Again

Today I leave for a week long 'camp' for Football Officials in Reno. At the camp I will be on a crew which will get filmed during full-contact scrimmage and then be evaluated by a mentor. I'll have much ore to say about this when I return. There will be over 50 Div I, NFL, Arena Football Officials on-site as mentors. I'm really looking forward to this.

Minor League Football - Last Week

I was scheduled to work the Conference Championship game on Sat. but was too ill. I took myself off the game. The next round of playoff is next week. so maybe I'll get this game.

Revision to last post

A few readers have pointed out a mistake in my logic regarding the 4th down fumble situation. This is welcome feedback. I hate it when I get things wrong, but I rarely make the same mistake twice. If anyone is interested in becoming an official you need to brave enough to be wrong. Because you will be.

What everyone has pointed out is the an errant snap is a backward pass (i.e., not a fumble) and thus the 4th down fumble rule does not apply. Anyone may advance the ball. However, no one has explained why.

I agree with the response. They are true, albeit incomplete answers. Here is what I mean.

Rule 2-2-3-b says all players are eligible to advance a loose ball from a fumble or backwards pass...

It it more precise to say the muffed snap becomes a loose ball and thus the 4th down fumble rule does not apply. You need to know the loose ball came from a backwards pass, but saying it is a backwards pass is not the reason the 4th down rule does not apply. I can't find anything in the rule book saying a backwards pass can be advanced by any player.... only a loose ball from a backwards pass.

This may sounds like a nit-pick, but actually it is important.

For example, Rule 6-3-1-a say a blocked scrimmage kick behind the LOS is also eligible to be advanced by any player. This is because the ball has become a loose ball. The blocking of the scrimmage kick (as is the muffed snap) is the action which changed the status of the ball. The key is the status of the ball, not the action against the ball.

Officials have this little mind-game we play where on scrimmage kicks we tell ourselves during the loose ball (i.e. the time period after it is kicked and before the kick ends) "it's still a kick, it's still a kick". We do this because if the attempt to gain possession of the kick is muffed, only R may advance. K can recover, but not advance. This is an exception the loose ball rule.

This is my point. All loose balls (grounded for this discussion) may be advanced by any player unless there is an exception.

So, saying "A muffed snap is a backwards pass, so the 4th down rule does not apply" is an accurate description, and we all know what it meant by it, but it is not true. A muffed snap is a loose ball, so the 4th down fumble rule does not apply.

Re-read Rule 2-2-3-b and see if you agree.

Minor League Football - 1st Round Payoff Game

The final score of 73-13 fails to reflect the lack of competitive play during the contest. This game was over ten minutes into the first quarter and the victors could have easily scored 100 points. In fact, at one time during the game, the coach asked me what would happen on the score reached 100, because they planned on running the score up.

From an officiating point of view this was a boring game. There were a lot of interceptions with run backs for scores. The winning team never seemed to have the ball. They score 73 points and maybe ran 30 offensive plays plays the entire game.

I worked the sidelines again. Threw a few offsides, false starts, and illegal formation as usual. The only big penalty was a Defensive PI. Before the first quarter ended the score was already 35-0. Players behind were saying, "hey, that guy is offsides". I said, "ya, I know." Then their team makes a eight yard run and they say "I guess it didn't help them". I say, "you noticed" and they chuckle. I did too but not so they could see me.

We had two interesting plays. The first occurred when the losing team had 4th and short around mid-field. There was a bad snap and then the ubiquitous mass of humanity. If you are not familiar with college rules, there is an important exception on 4th down fumbles. Only the fumbler is allow to pick-up the ball and advance. If another teammate gains possession the play ends and the ball will be placed back at the spot of the fumble.

So, on this play the question is - who is the fumbler on a bad snap? The Snapper or the QB? Typically on these plays the QB picks-up the ball and advances. But I think this is wrong.

Here's my interpretation of this scenario from the 2007 rule book.

2-12-1... Handing the ball is transferring player possession from one teammate to another without throwing, fumbling or kicking
2-12-1-c... loss of player possession by unsuccessful execution of attempted handling is a fumble by the last player in possession.
2-19-2-d...the snap becomes a backward pass when the snapper releases the ball
2-23-1-c ... the screwed-up snap is a backwards pass
2-10-1... a fumble is ANY act other than passing, kicking, or successful handling that results in loss of player possession..

So, I conclude the Snapper was the last player in possession of the ball, and thus on 4th down, the only player who can advance the backwards pass.

Luckily, they didn't make the line to gain anyway, so it was a non-issue, but we did talk about it and I think the White Hat would have given them the first down had they made it.

The second odd play was on a high snap that went over the kickers head. The kicker chased the ball and then kicked it while it was on the ground. An illegal kick. I had to give the White Hat the proper signal. Which really didn't matter because the other team ran the ball back for a score.

This could be my last MLF game this season. The next round of playoffs is next week, but of course, I won't know if I have a game until Wednesday.

Minor League Football - Bizarre Game - Part 2

There was a second, more important down-by-contact play late in the second quarter. Two players leaped for a pass and made incidental contact in the air. The receiver touched and gained possession of the ball after the two separated and he completed the catch upon hitting the ground. Neither I nor the Field Judge blew our whistle. The player wisely gets off the ground and runs in for the score.

Of course my coach is coming out of his skin claiming down by contact. I said the receiver was never touch while he possessed a live ball (i.e., was not a ball carrier). How can you have down-by-contact on a non-call carrier?

Frankly, I don't know the rule. I looked in the NFL rule book and could not find an interpretation of this situation. It became an important play, because of what happens next.

So, the team attempts a two point conversion and fails. Recall last post I asked you to remember the score being 8-0. Now the score is 8-6. Remember this.

A series or two later, the Visitors (the team with six points) is at the 19 yard line on 4th and long. They decided to attempt a Field Goal. The kick is short and for some bizarre reason, the home team player catches the ball at the two. Yes, he can advance the ball, by why not just take a Touchback and get the ball at the twenty? Instead, this guy proceeds to run all over the friggin place and ends-up tackled in the end zone. Safety. Are you kidding me? Now the score is 8-9 and they have to kick the ball back to the Visitors.

So, go for three points, but get two, and get the ball back. Cool.

Then with about five minutes remaining in the 4th, the Side Judge comes running over to my side of the field, (during a play mind you) to confront my coach. What the hell? He yelling he has a right to defend himself, your players are threating me, I don't have to take this crap, etc. WHAT?

When you walk on to the field as an official you do have to put up with crap. Boat loads of it. But, there is a line players and coaches cannot cross and you better know how thick the line is. I usually draw the line when they start using second person pronouns. It becomes very clear, very fast when it turns into disrespect. When it turns into disrespect it becomes very simple. You toss a flag and take control. Simple. End of story. You don't make a scene in front of everyone, including the children of the players, and make a complete ass out of yourself. You make the entire crew and the association look terrible.

I told my coach I was embarrassed for the crew and that guy was way out of line and highly unprofessional.

After the game the Side Judge continued to justify his actions and claimed wasn't going to do this sport any more. Good.

Next week is the final regular season game, but I believe I have two games.

Minor League Football - Week 9 - Bizarre Game - Part 1

This week's game was the most difficult to officiate this season. The game was very odd and many unusual plays occurred. The final score was 9-8.

One thing that made the game different was I worked Line Judge. The LJ is the wing official who is opposite the Chains. My responsibility is watching the line of scrimmage, watching the 'inside' receiver, and helping on passes. I have forward progress all the way to the two yard line. On an interception, I do something called 'fade mechanics' where I have to back peddle all the way back to the goalline.

What is really awkward, and quite different from High School, is the LJ holds the line until a pass is thrown. In High School, when you read pass, you break down field to help the Back Judge. It's almost unnatural just standing there.

A reoccurring theme in this league is no clock. Eventually, they got it working, but we started the game with no clock.

So, the opening kickoff is fumbled and the home team recovers. Two plays later they score and then complete a two point conversion. The score is 8-0. This is important to remember later in our story.

Then we have very high, short punt. Nothing good ever happens when these occur. And sure enough we have a receiver touching the ball and the kickers recovering. The kickers then proceed to advance the kick. Why the two deep officials or the Umpire did not blow the whistle is beyond me. So, the play goes on, the guy scores, my sideline gets all jubilant and then the Side Judge comes in and says the receiver was blocked into the ball. Well Mr Side Judge, if you saw that, why the hell didn't you blow your whistle when K picked-up the ball. My coach wants answers, its not his fault the stupid receiver was that close to the ball. Everything went downhill from here.

Then, late in the second, I see flags flying on the other side of the field. Eventually, there are five flags on the ground and 45 yards of penalties against the visitors. One player is ejected for fighting and a flag was thrown on a coach. We wasted ten minutes getting this all figured out. Adding insult to injury, the Umpire walked the wrong way, and had to remark the penalty.

What else? Oh, yea the first questionable down-by-contact. We had a play in the middle of the field where a ball carrier broke through the line and then fell down. I blew my whistle. But, shortly realized (and I still don't know if I was right) the contact that occurred before he fell down did not cause him to go down. I told the White Hat I had an inadvertent whistle. The offense took the result of the play, so no harm done. I've asked our assigner for clarification on this rule because I actually don't know what it is.

There's more bizarre stuff that occurred during this game. More tomorrow.

Minor League Football - Week 8

I was eager to get today's game underway. I'd been at work all night supporting a large technical migration and was on my third wind. I needed a distraction. And there is no better distraction than good old fashioned civilized brutality. Actually, there is a better distraction but it usually only last twenty minutes.

But alas, no Official distractions today. The home team had to forfeit for a lack of players. This is the same team weak team I worked during week 5. Turns out the team only suited 14 players. None of the starting backfield and none of the skilled players showed-up. They didn't even bother to call the coach.

So here is the poor coach (who is the owner) who has to pay for the field, pay us for our time, and apparently pay a $500 fine for a forfeit. I felt sorry for the guy in the regard, but it seems to me his team is trying to tell him something. The Coach blamed the 'other' league for allowing a new expansion team into the area. If the guy is losing players, then I think there is another root cause.

I missed a timely week 7 update, but will have one shortly.

Minor League Football - Week 6

Saturday's game was another interesting contest where the clock ran the entire second half and the game lasted a brief 2:15. Easy money.

The game did not start out this way. Each team scored on their first position and by the end of the first quarter the score was 21-6. I though we were in for a long day. But then there were the turnovers. The losing team had no business passing the ball. Three interceptions if I recall correctly.

From an officiating point of view this was a pretty boring game. I threw one false start flag. We may have had five flags the entire game. Unlike many of the other games I've reported on, the clocked worked, the chain crew was good, there were not personal fouls or unsportsmanlike. I could complain the ball boy took too long to bring the ball out - but, since he was only nine years old I guess I can cut him some slack.

The one place I did make a mistake was while we were in goalline. I forgot to cover the line of scrimmage. I do this because the two wings break to goalline. I have to come-up and rule on ineligible downfield and illegal forward pass. While the pass was in the air I realize my mistake. No one would even notice this besides me and a good evaluator. Hopefully, no one sees this. It's not a huge mistake, and when the score is 40-6, not that big a deal, but still a mistake.

So, an easy game to work, but not much to report on.

Minor League Football - Week 5.

This week's game was an odd one.

First, I worked the same home team I worked last week. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. Then, I'm working as the Field Judge. I've never worked Field Judge before. For those who do not know, the FJ is one of the deep officials who primarily cover passes. Your key is the outside receiver. Or two outside receivers. Or three outside... basically, you have the outside receivers.

You start 20 yards off the ball and back peddle the entire game. On plays outside the 15 or so, you typically have the goalline. Inside the 15, we tend to go to the endline. Not something an Umpire typically does.

The visiting team shows up with a handful of players. "The others are on their way, but stuck in traffic." Whatever. We're starting the game at 7:00. This team was so short players, the coach suited-up. The 51 year old coach.

So, the Visitors start the game with 18 players. Home team has something like 50 players.

The games goes like this. Home gets the ball. Scores. Visitors get the ball and go four and out. Home gets the ball and scores. Visitors get a first down and then four and out. They apparently have no punter.

Now the odd part begins. At 9:39 in the 2nd quarter there is a big hit on the far sideline. Turns out, the ball carrier for the Visitors broke his leg. He's right on the sideline so we cannot continue play.

After 10 minutes or so the meat wagon shows up. I guess his is busted pretty bad because it took forever.

The visiting coach finally asks if we can have a running clock. Of course. But he doesn't mean during the game, he mean right now. Run the clock off now. Ok, if that's what you want. When we ask the home team coach he say "sure, but hell we haven't even thrown a pass tonight". They were up 28-0 already.

So, while the 9:39 is burning off, the home coach asks if this delay can be halftime and we start the third quarter as soon as the ambulance takes off. Sure thing coach.

During the burning of the 9:39 one of the visiting players says, "I'm getting too old for this game". When we asked how old he was he said, "forty-eight". What! He wasn't the only player on that team with gray hair.

We ran the entire 2nd half with a running clock. I think the entire game we threw maybe five flags. All false start or offside. A pretty boring game over all. We were done in 90 minutes. I can't even get a Freshman game done that quickly.

Oh well, seventy bucks is seventy bucks.

Minor League Football - If I only had a Brain - Part 1A

If you read the last post you'll recall this was not my best game. Most spectators would never know the difference, but as someone once said, the camera never lies. And apparently someone (no, a different someone) was filming last week's game. I was offered a DVD of the game -- I accepted. Let me review the film and see how bad things really were. If I can cut out a piece of the film, I'll add it the web so you can see what I see.

Minor League Football - If I only had a Brain - Part 1

There was a strange duplicity in this week's game. There was the game I worked; and then there is the game that everyone else saw.

The game everyone saw was outstanding. A classic back-and-forth contest where the better team won, and the losing team was last years Champs. Coaches misused time-outs, turnovers came at inopportune times, and a failed hail-mary in the closing seconds made this game a good candidate for the year-end highlight reel. But overall, a very well played contest with a final score of 28-21.

Game management was excellent. We had a clock (a first this season) a chain crew, ball people. You may think this is trivial, but trust me, when these things don't go well, it makes for a long night.

This was a game I would take my young son to. There was good sportsmanship all around, players helping one another off the ground, etc. Enough foul language to remind you this was a football game, and way more than would be tolerated in a High School or College game, but overall not too bad.

That's the game everyone else saw. I, on the other hand, am not really sure what game I saw because I left my brain in the car. Or at home. I'm not really sure because I lost it.

It starts early in the first quarter with a pass about 15 yards down the middle of the field. As Umpire, I'm supposed to turn on these passes and watch the reception. On these short passing routes in the middle of the field the receivers back it typically towards the deep officials. In other words, the deep officials cannot see the ball. I'm the one with the best view on trapped balls.

So, I read pass, see the QB is going to throw, and I lock on the intended receiver ... I at least I tried. The QB had a cannon for an arm. The receiver dives back towards the LOS, sticks an arm out and...

I don't know for sure if he actually caught it, but it wasn't clear he didn't either. My head was not stationary, the ball was zipped, and the receiver was moving back towards me. It was one of those close ones. Luckily, I didn't blow my whistle (Minor League Football uses down-by-contact rule). Not because I ruled a completed pass. No, I didn't blow it dead because I didn't know. I didn't know because I did think what it takes to make a reception a 'catch'. I just thinking " gee, I don't know and it's too late now, so.... " So, the receiver is just laying there on the ground. No one touched him. He is still just laying there. It's like everything just stopped. It seems like he is sitting there for 10 seconds. Still no whistle.

Now, this should be a clue to me that the guy knew he didn't catch the ball, right? Of yea, STILL NO WHISTLE. So, he finally gets up and runs... and runs... and runs... and scores. During the run back there was a flag. Thrown by me. This is a story by itself which I will include in the next post.

But the real issue with all this is I did not know it was a catch, yet I ruled it was. As I replay it in my mind, I don't know if the ground aided the receiver or not. I 'think' his hand was under ball when it bounced-up and hit his chest. He was far enough away that I could not be certain. So, although this was one of those 'it can go either way' kind of calls, I think I was wrong. When in doubt, it is NOT a catch should be the rule of the day.

But you need to bring your brain to the game.

There are a lot more interesting (i.e. Brainless) things about this game I'll share in the next post.

Minor League Football - zzzzzzzzzzzzz

No game this week. In fact, I still do not know the remainder of my schedule save on lone game in May. We were promised six games. Next week is week four already. This league is so weird.

Speaking of weird; and complete stupidity, I agreed to work the All-Star game again. The game is not until late June, so I still have time to come to my senses.

Minor Leage Football - So far, an ugly game

This weeks Minor League game was hosted at the same venue as last weeks gridiron travesty. A few players were there to play Football and played well. Most are what I call -- crybabies. These whiners are act like teenagers boys who still haven't figured out that life is not fair. I spend most of my time during the contest focusing on these juveniles acting out their frustrations. It is hard to believe these are adults. The Junior College kids don't even act this way.

We threw two Unsportsmanlike flags for players removing their helmets on the field. Sounds benign, but the helmets came off after something happened... who the hell knows what it was, but this "offended" player just had to jump up-and-down, scream and yell, and throw a tantrum my four year old son would be proud of. And this was on the team that ended-up winning 49-12.

Things began to all apart before the game even started. Again, only two (myself and the White Hat) of us had any CCFOA experience (college). Before the game even started, things started off bad.

The home team owner typically gives us our game fee prior to the game starting, and prior to us beginning our respective position duties. This week, she approached to us ten minutes before the game started. She said she did not have the money with her, but so-and-so had the cash and we needed to see him. The White Hat simply stated that we preferred if so-and-so brought the money to us as we are preparing for the game. She stomps off. Five minutes later so-and-so arrives with the money and a bone to pick with the White Hat. He says something to the effect of "I hear we have an attitude problem." The White Hat says something to effect of, "No attitude problem. We are working, give us our money... and you can leave now." The White Hat was more professional than my paraphrase, but he basically told him to take his attitude and shove it.

Then, we have a kickoff. No big deal. But no chain crew. So we had to wait for five minutes to get this put together. Same thing happened following halftime. And once again, no game clock
. Mr. so-and-so with the attitude needs to do his friggin job before he starts waving fingers at us.

Everyone seemed to have an attitude Saturday. We flagged one player for two personal fouls on the same play. There was some long run or punt return, I don't recall, but around mid-field a good twenty yards from the ball, #45 blocks a guy in the back... now bear in mind, #45 is on defense, then he races down to where the tackle being made and after the whistle, knocks the crap put of someone. Another flag. This is the same a-hole I threw flags on last week. It was so stupid because the end of the run was at the 16, so we did half distance, half distance and put the ball on the four. I could have, and now looking back should have, nailed the guy for hitting a defenseless player... which would have been an ejection.

I threw an Illegal Forward Pass, a few False Starts, and a huge Holding. #55 was so pissed at me for calling it on him, but he took the guy down. He said "I rode him to the ground." Ah, yea, by the shoulder pads. Friggin whiners.

I could go on, but as I relieve these preschool playground antics, I'm getting depressed.

I still don't know what games I have for the season, so who knows what fun is in store next Saturday.

Minor League Football.. key word is minor

If Saturday's game is any indication of what is to come, then this is going to be a long, ugly season. Minor League Football conjours up the movie The Longest Yard. Saturday's game could have been the inspiration for that movie.

First, the caliber of play was dismal. I understand these guys have day-jobs and are weekend warrior's at best. And I doubt many of these players have seen a weight room or a pair of jogging shoes in a long time. But this is no excuse of the lack of character in grown men. It was pathetic. I thought the High School All-Star games were bad. This was just plain old ugly.

The game ended 22-6, so at least it was interesting, but we threw way too many flags. I broke-up several potential fights and had to talk down more than one hyped-up player. We threw at least six unsportsmanlike and three personal fouls - one of which I threw. I could, or perhaps should, have thrown other flags. Pushing, shoving, fighting. I caught a guy punching another player in the balls. What the hell?

One thing that contributed to the problem was we had a rookie crew. Three of the crew had never worked NCAA rules or mechanics. They had deer-in-the-headlights syndrome and it showed. Things started to get out of hand when the players felt we were not going to call any of the borderline things. It took us vets two quarters to get things back in line. We had to threaten to leave in order to get the players to stop being stupid.

As with many of the junior college games, there was no clock on the field, no PA system, and no field management to my knowledge. For a league what wants to improve its image, it is off to a poor start.

So get this; during the first quarter, we have a play in the flats where the runner falls down, but was not down by contact. The Line Judge blows the play dead. Ok, fine, he is a High School official and forgot we are using the NFL rule for this. No big deal. I remind him and we go on.

Another play just like this happens on the other side of the field, but the Linesman correctly does not blow the play dead and the runner gains another five yards before he is tackled. The visiting coach is jumping through his skin because the runners knee was down. We remind him of the rule, he protests, we tell him to politely get a clue. Then at halftime, the two coaches speak and agree to change the rule for the second half - now we are using High School rules.

Whatever.

Minor League Football Season Begins

The other day I attended an all day clinic with the Minor League Football group. This will either be the beginning of something really big; or a really big flop. I really do think big things are coming for MLF and the COA group. More posts on this later this month.

Saturday will be the first game of the season. I'm excited about getting back on the field, but it's going to be an ugly game. Put six guys on a game who have never met before and throw in that most of these guys have never worked a game using NCAA rules... this will be interesting.

What is more interesting are the rules. The MLF conferences we are working this year use modified NCAA rules. Modified in the sense that the game is managed like NCAA, uses High School blocking rules, but includes the NFL Touching rule (or down by contact. The teams get four time-outs per half, instead of the normal three, but we will be allowed to wind the clock on change of possessions. Very weird.

Semi-Pro Update

This Minor League Football opportunity I mentioned last post has turned into something very real and very interesting. I'm actually very excited about the season. This is partially due to the fact that the gentleman who runs the Community College association has endorsed the Football Officials of America (FOA). This speaks highly of the FOA.

This Saturday the FOA is conducting a day long clinic with both classroom discussions and field work. Our field work will be filmed and evaluated. This is very welcomed and brings a lot of legitimacy to the FOA.

My first exposure to Minor League Football was a game last April. The caliber of the play was decent I suppose, but what really struck me was the amount of passion in the play. These guys love this game and play with heart. This is something I rarely see in High School and never see at the Community College level.

Regarding the Community College, I received the official,"your in" contract from the association. I still have to meet all the requirements to be assigned games, but at least this means I no longer have a label of Prospect or Candidate.

What are the Requirements?
> Attend summer study meetings
> Attend the training clinic
> Get at least 80% on the test
> Attend preseason scrimmages
> Get your doctor to sign off on a physical
> Pay your annual dues

And study like hell during off season.

I'll let you know how the FOA clinic goes on Saturday.

Moving Up to the Semi-Pros

For anyone still following along, I appreciate your patience. It has been far too long since my last report.

The week following my last season game the post-season assignments were issued. One of the rules for the association is no post-season assignments unless you have been on staff for at least two years. As I was only a Candidate, I have another two season before this is even a possibility.

But what is very encouraging is everyone from my local group was assigned a bowl game. There are five bowl games and then a State Championship game. One guy from my local group with about five years on staff was assigned the State Championship game. It's great to know I am in a strong group. My Regional Rep has told me more than once he feels we are the best within the association. I think these assignments speak for themselves.

Something else you may not know is every year after the season ends you get 'fired'. The association sends a note stating something to the effect that our relationship is severed, thanks for all the help, see you next year - maybe. I am technically no longer part of the association. Each year we have to attend all the meetings, take all the tests, attend all the clinics, etc. before you can be hired back on staff.

I was recently asked to work some Minor League Football (sometimes called Semi-Pro Football.) The assigner says there are 110 games during the season that runs from March through May. Then May through July is playoffs.

My wife is thrilled.

But as I explained to her, you never know who is watching and it never hurts to see more snaps. Plus, this will help pay for the Football Officials camp I will be attending mid-year.

I guess the off-season is over. Back on the treadmill and back to the rule books.