This week I worked two high school games and one college.
High School Game
This game was somewhat of a milestone. First, this was a Varsity White Hat, so kinda, sorta like a promotion. Second, it was an 8-man football game. Yes, you can play football with eight players.
There are several small schools in the area just starting football programs, most of which are Christian based schools. Although not as intense as 11-man the quality of the football is not lacking. It is a very different game, however.
For instance the field is smaller -- only 80 x 40 yards (verses 100 x 53 for 11-man). The field used during this contest was quite unique. Rather than painting or chalking the yard lines the grounds keeper simply killed the grass. As I'm walking towards the field I'm thinking, "holy shit, there are trenches for yard lines." The trenches were an illusion. The field was perfectly flat, but the three inch grass made the 'depression' look huge. The field also lacked goal posts and most of the western endzone overlapped the infield of the baseball diamond; somewhere between first and second base as I recall.
And adding to the ambiance was the portable lighting system. All night we had light shining horizontally into our eyes and the constant droning of six gas powered generators. If the QB threw the ball high enough the ball sorta vanished for a moment. Nice.
With the shorter field, kickoffs are from the thirty verses the forty. There were several Touchbacks during the Kickoffs which is rather unusual for high school. The only other major difference is you need five players (verses seven) on the line of scrimmage, but most of the other rules are the same.
The game does play very different than 11-man. Holes open up faster and once a runner gets past the line there seems to be only one linebacker or safety to stop him. The final score was 54-40, so this this gives you a clue of what I am talking about. With all the scoring the game time was longer than a typical 11-man game - 2:45.
One interesting play occurred late in the third quarter. The team which ultimately lost was at their own 15 yard line with 2nd down and fourteen. The QB rolls out for a pass and is immediately in trouble running for his life. The poor kid was all of 5'2'' and looked like a scared rabbit. He rolls out of the pocket, scrambles towards the sidelines, and feeling the breath of his 6'3'' pursuer, dumps the ball to out of bounds. I toss my flag for Intentional Grounding (IG).
The QB says, "...but I was outside the pocket", to which I retort, "yes you were, but we are playing with Friday night rules." His coach asked to speak with me about this, and of course, stated the same thing. He is obviously coaching the QB to do this. I politely informed the coach the IG rules are different between high school and other levels. I was all over this call and if you read last weeks post you recognize why I would be a bit hypersensitive about IG. The unfortunate thing for his team was IG is a five-yard, spot foul (meaning, enforced from where the pass was thrown), PLUS a loss of down. The QB threw the pass at the 3-yard line. Two plays later the QB was sacked for a Safety.
Otherwise, a pretty routine game. This was technically my second varsity White Hat game, but the first where I was not working with my regular crew or my crew chief was working another position. I was truly on my own from a leadership point of view.
The college game report will be in the next post. A wild game with two team ranked in the top ten in the state.
Showing posts with label Intentional Grounding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intentional Grounding. Show all posts
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Being Kinda Right is no Option - The Final Chapter
Lesson Learned #2
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote
Truman Capote is the one of the last people I'd associate with football, but I'm hoping his metaphor rings true. That lessons learned during screw-ups make uncertain future success that much more satisfying.
The screw-up occurred midway through the second quarter. And screw-up does not even begin to describe the severity of this mistake. For screw-up, Roget's recommends; botch, blunder, foul up, mess up, mishandle, spoil, make a muck of. The description to harm irreparably through inept handling is pretty close.
The play itself is pretty simple. The quarterback rolls out to my left, scrambles for a bit, and then throws the ball away. Simple. Basic. And apparently easy for the officials to botch.
As soon as the football skids across the feild the White Hat throws a flag for Intentional Grounding (IG) . This didn't make any sense to me. IG occurs when the QB dumps the ball to save a loss of yardage (i.e., to prevent a sack). Clearly, this is why the QB dumped the ball on this play. However, if the QB is outside the of the normal tackle position (i.e., outside of the pocket) when the pass is thrown you have two criteria to consider before it becomes a foul.
The first is whether the ball is thrown pass the line of scrimmage (LOS). If the QB is outside the pocket and the ball crosses the LOS, then IG should NOT be called. The second is whether the QB is outside the pocket and there is a receiver with a reasonable opportunity to catch the pass. If so, then IG will also NOT be called.
During our game the QB was outside the pocket and the ball was thrown beyond the LOS. No foul. Yet we enforced a penalty for IG. This was a botch, but this is not the BOTCH I have been teasing you about.
Why did we enforce a phantom foul? The White Hat generally has no idea where the pass goes. He should be watching the QB and nothing else. If he feels the QB is throwing the ball away to avoid a sack then he tosses a flag. The protocol during these situations is the wing official hustles over to the White Hat and tells him either there was a player in the area or whether the ball crossed the LOS or not. This did not happen.
Neither did the deep official (he is the official who speaks with the coach) get the foul information and report to the coach. And finally, I didn't question the White Hat on the pass crossing the LOS. I should have asked the White Hat what was reported. This is a simple technique to save the White Hat from doing something stupid. And I knew there was no foul. I knew this was not right.
But at the time I did not have the confidence I knew the rules on IG. The White Hat is Mr. Rules. He is a Crew Chief in our High School association. He's been officiating since the 1960's. He was my college mentor last year. I trusted him. And he was wrong. It's my job as umpire to cover his ass.
I now confidently know the IG rules and will never forget them. I've seared them into my brain. So, major mistake. We penalized a team that did not foul.
But it gets worse.
The penalty for IG is five yards from the spot of the foul PLUS a loss of down. We did not enforce the loss of down. Meaning, we let them repeat the down. We gave them another down. I don't even remember what down it WAS, let alone what is was supposed to be, but this is cardinal rule #1, go straight to hell and do not collect $200 kinda botch. Know what down it is and never, never, never, EVER give a team an extra down. This is Officiating 101. It's preschool officiating.
So here is the rub; if there was no foul, then it was an incomplete pass and the down ends. If it was a IG foul then they would lose the down. Get it? Botch with a capital B.
And of course they scored two plays later. (Insert awkward silence) Good thing they lost the game.
It doesn't end here. Our entire crew was downgraded. Here is an except from the weekly bulletin "This situation is a CREW downgrade as 5 other members, within their responsibilities during penalty enforcement failed to recognize, question or communicate the loss of down situation."
Downgrading is a form of disciplinary action. Everyone at some point gets downgraded for mistakes. Even the NFL guys. But too many of these and you'll never get moved up.
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote
Truman Capote is the one of the last people I'd associate with football, but I'm hoping his metaphor rings true. That lessons learned during screw-ups make uncertain future success that much more satisfying.
The screw-up occurred midway through the second quarter. And screw-up does not even begin to describe the severity of this mistake. For screw-up, Roget's recommends; botch, blunder, foul up, mess up, mishandle, spoil, make a muck of. The description to harm irreparably through inept handling is pretty close.
The play itself is pretty simple. The quarterback rolls out to my left, scrambles for a bit, and then throws the ball away. Simple. Basic. And apparently easy for the officials to botch.
As soon as the football skids across the feild the White Hat throws a flag for Intentional Grounding (IG) . This didn't make any sense to me. IG occurs when the QB dumps the ball to save a loss of yardage (i.e., to prevent a sack). Clearly, this is why the QB dumped the ball on this play. However, if the QB is outside the of the normal tackle position (i.e., outside of the pocket) when the pass is thrown you have two criteria to consider before it becomes a foul.
The first is whether the ball is thrown pass the line of scrimmage (LOS). If the QB is outside the pocket and the ball crosses the LOS, then IG should NOT be called. The second is whether the QB is outside the pocket and there is a receiver with a reasonable opportunity to catch the pass. If so, then IG will also NOT be called.
During our game the QB was outside the pocket and the ball was thrown beyond the LOS. No foul. Yet we enforced a penalty for IG. This was a botch, but this is not the BOTCH I have been teasing you about.
Why did we enforce a phantom foul? The White Hat generally has no idea where the pass goes. He should be watching the QB and nothing else. If he feels the QB is throwing the ball away to avoid a sack then he tosses a flag. The protocol during these situations is the wing official hustles over to the White Hat and tells him either there was a player in the area or whether the ball crossed the LOS or not. This did not happen.
Neither did the deep official (he is the official who speaks with the coach) get the foul information and report to the coach. And finally, I didn't question the White Hat on the pass crossing the LOS. I should have asked the White Hat what was reported. This is a simple technique to save the White Hat from doing something stupid. And I knew there was no foul. I knew this was not right.
But at the time I did not have the confidence I knew the rules on IG. The White Hat is Mr. Rules. He is a Crew Chief in our High School association. He's been officiating since the 1960's. He was my college mentor last year. I trusted him. And he was wrong. It's my job as umpire to cover his ass.
I now confidently know the IG rules and will never forget them. I've seared them into my brain. So, major mistake. We penalized a team that did not foul.
But it gets worse.
The penalty for IG is five yards from the spot of the foul PLUS a loss of down. We did not enforce the loss of down. Meaning, we let them repeat the down. We gave them another down. I don't even remember what down it WAS, let alone what is was supposed to be, but this is cardinal rule #1, go straight to hell and do not collect $200 kinda botch. Know what down it is and never, never, never, EVER give a team an extra down. This is Officiating 101. It's preschool officiating.
So here is the rub; if there was no foul, then it was an incomplete pass and the down ends. If it was a IG foul then they would lose the down. Get it? Botch with a capital B.
And of course they scored two plays later. (Insert awkward silence) Good thing they lost the game.
It doesn't end here. Our entire crew was downgraded. Here is an except from the weekly bulletin "This situation is a CREW downgrade as 5 other members, within their responsibilities during penalty enforcement failed to recognize, question or communicate the loss of down situation."
Downgrading is a form of disciplinary action. Everyone at some point gets downgraded for mistakes. Even the NFL guys. But too many of these and you'll never get moved up.
Its been a week and I still cannot stop thinking about this.
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