NCFL Week 9 Update - Part II

Picking-up where we left off, week nine's game was full of difficult plays to officiate. Often there are games where really only one or two times do you have something odd happen. Something you second guess yourself on or need to have a conference on the field. Week nine's game had way too many of these situations.

I threw a flag for Aiding the Runner. This is when a teammate either pushes or pulls the ball carrier(runner). The Runner must earn the yardage themselves. The home teams was driving to the goal line and when the scrum pile started, several of his teammates began pushing the pile. This happens frequently in games and many offiicials do not see it. They get caought-up in the play and are watching the ball. The penalty is 5 Yards from the spot of the foul.

Things really fell apart when early in the second quarter the visitors threw a pass to the flats. Recall, I work Umpire, so I often will spin or rotate to help on these plays. Often I am the only one in position to see a trap ball. So, I let go of my keys (the players I typically focus on during scrimmage plays), turn to the flats, and witness the airborne receiver snatch the pigskin from the air and plummet to earth into a sea of jerseys. I cannot help on this play so I turn my attention back to mess around the action. I do this to help 'clean-up' and catch any necessary actions away from the play. Everyone is slowing down... no whistle...the play seems to be ending... I still have not heard a whistle... this feels funny... where is the f-ing whistle...

Now, you may be asking why don't I blow mine? Well, Umpires generally do not blow their whistle unless the play ends right in front of them, and if I cannot see the ball, I can't blow the whistle...

Where were we... right, no f-ing whistle... all of sudden a player for the other team is running with the ball... and still, no whistle. What the hell just happened? Apparently, the receiver, thinking he was down, let go of the ball and the other team, thinking it was a fumble, picks it up and runs. The official on that sideline ruled it was a fumble. Well, ya, if you don't kill the play what are people going to think?

One team is happy, the other is pissed, and all of a sudden, I am part of the game. And a few plays later the benefactors of this screw-up score three points. This is not good.

This occurred twice, both caused by the same official.

I had a controversial no-call that I still think I got right. The runner is embraced by to defenders, but forward progress was not stopped. They go to the ground, but the runner falls on-top of another player, rolls onto his feet, and continues running. Nothing other than his hands or feet touched the ground. This was not a tackle. I did have my whistle in my mouth (I use a finger whistle), but thankfully, I did not blow it. Sometimes it hard to believe how fast you can process this stuff when it happens. Again, one team was happy, the other was not, but in my judgement he was not down.

Then we had this one. http://www.pacificaislanders.com/News%20stories/Pacifica%20defeats%20Salinas.html Notice the ball is out before the QB is on the ground. This would be a fumble. Unless, his arm had been in motion, or maybe his left leg, which I cannot see, touched the ground before the ball came loose, or maybe this photo is after his elbow hit the ground and the ball came loose and now he is just trying to protect himself?

I'm pretty sure it was a fumble. This is very difficult to officiate in real-time because you have to watch for several things at once. The primary concern is for the safety of the QB. The guy is getting mauled. If I were the White Hat on this play, I would be focusing on the QB - forget the ball. We would never live it down if the QB gets hurt for some extra-curricular activity.

My point is most of these close calls would be less of a problem if we were not under the microscope due to some crappy no-calls. Once we become part of the game, everything comes into question.

The next contest is the last regular season game.

NCFL Week 9 Update - Part I

An official should never go into a game with expectations of who is going to win. Admittedly, I often do. Most of my colleagues do the same. It has no bearing on my calls or no-calls or have any influence on how I perform. I couldn't care less who actually does wins the game. Completely irrelevant to me. As I have mentioned before, I frequently don't even pay attention to which teams are playing... there is a team in a white jersey and team in a not-white jersey.

This week (week 9) I assumed the undefeated team would beat the .500 team. I worked these two teams last season during the California State Championship game. During this game, both teams were undefeated; however, clearly one team was better than the other --- 58-6 better.

So, going into this game, what was I too think?

When the score was 6-0 at halftime... and the anticipated victors were losing... I was frankly perplexed.

The coach with the goose-egg, of course, blamed the officials for his team losing. And if I am being honest he had plenty to gripe about. Several poorly officiated calls/no-calls by two of the weaker officials on the crew made the entire crew look terrible. These mistakes were accentuated because they all occurred during some form of change of possession when everyone and their mother was watching.

My opinion on this scenario is the coach should never let the game be decided by me (the officials). His team touches the ball 60-70 times a game. I do not influence each and every play, but mistakes may occur on non-routine plays. And when players fumble the ball, weird shit happens. His team fumbles several times. When the ball gets punted, weird shit happens. His team punted a lot. Someone once said, "Three things can happen when you pass the ball and two of them are bad." His team passed a lot. Most of the questionable calls occurred during fumbles, punts and passes. In this league, at this point its maturity, you are going experience officiating mistakes when weird shit happens.

I am not making excuses. This coach got screwed on several plays. It pisses me off when mistakes are made and now I become part of the game. I want people to forget, or better yet, not even notice I was even there. The game deserves good officiating and we earn our money making difficult judgment calls when things start falling apart. The level of officiating does need to improve which I will discuss in another post.

Ultimately, the team who I expected to win did prevail 14-17. There were some interesting plays I'll mention in the next post.