Friday night
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
The receiving team coach elects for the re-kick. So, crackhead is now kicking from the thirty yard line. The next kick also rolls
And yes, the third kick also went
