On a non-football note, I begin a new job this week and expect to have more time to blog. My previous job was 100 miles from home and it required me to burn the candle at both ends. One must do what one must do these days, but at least I can find more of a work-life-balance now.
High School
Friday night I was fortunate to work the 'big' high school game of the week. The game ended with a final score of 19-20 and came down to a last minute hail Mary pass. This kid must have thrown the ball seventy yards. Amazing. The visitors scored 42 and 47 yard field goals which is pretty darn good for high school. But, unfortunately for the visitors, this same young man missed the extra point that would have tied the game.
We used six-man mechanics during the game instead of our usual five-man mechanics. This didn't really impact our game performance, but on big games like this one, it does make the game easier to manage. Unless your an Umpire (me) working as a Side Judge.
The Side Judge is a deep official working on the sideline, about 20 yards from the line of scrimmage, on the defensive side of the ball. My primary responsibility are the pass receivers on my side side of the field. Typically, when you see a pass interference flag it is the Side Judge (or the counter part on the opposite side of the field – the Field Judge) making the call.
The other major responsibility occurs during scrimmage kicks (punts). Most of the time the SJ focuses on the blockers and the FJ focuses on the kick receiver. During this game I found myself 'ball watching' and may have missed a block in the back. I saw the tail end of the collision, but I did not see the whole act. I did see the block on TV that night I think it was one of those blocks that looks 'bad', but technically is not a block in the back. These happen all the time. I just really can't be sure and wish I could have the game film to see if I missed it.
Onside Kick
I did make a big call during an onside kick. Boy, the crowd went crazy on this one. The visitors has just scored to make the score 19-20 and there was only about 4 minutes remaining. They lined up, kicked the ball, and were offside (encroachment is the foul in high school). I was a little late on my whistle and unfortunately, the visitors had recovered the ball, so on such a big play I should have shut this down ASAP. But I could not see the ball when it was kicked, so they were clearly offside, but from a game administration point of view, I should have sold the flag harder.
I heard later that the opposing coach was upset because we had not called ticky-tack fouls all night, and on the biggest play of the game I threw a flag. But here is the criteria. On a standard free kick (kickoff) the player is not considered to have encroached on the neutral zone (the 10 yard gap between teams) unless, before the ball is kicked, he has one foot on the ground after crossing the restraining line. In other words, we cut them some slack and don't make the restraining line a 'plane'.
However, during an onside kick there is no slack. Onside kicks are huge game changing plays and the restraining line becomes a plane similar to the goal line. And the visitors broke the plane. I may have cost them the game, but the rules are the rules.
On Saturday I was asked to work two college game. This came to a total of seven hours of game time. Not fun. But some interesting thing occurred during the contest. More on that during the next post.
