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.
