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.